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A HISTORY 



OF 



GREEK CLASSICAL 
LITERATURE. 



* ■/ BY 

K^W"; TBROWNE, M.A. 

PREBENDARY OP ST. PAUL'S, 
AND PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE IN KING-'s COLLEGE, LONDON. 



'Sirovdcuov ovSeu in sermone, (piAoAoya multa. 

Cic Ep. ad Att. 



NEW EDITION. 



LOlVSON: 

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 

Ptrfiltsfjer m ©rfcmarg ta p?et fHajestg. 
1853. 



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LONDON : 

Printed by Samuel Bentley and Co., 
Bangor House, Shoe Lane 



PREFACE. 



In entering upon a general survey of Classical 
Literature, that of Greece first engages the atten- 
tion, not only as constituting the oldest literature of 
Europe, but as the source from which Rome derived 
all her mental culture. The literature of Rome was 
distinguished not by originality of talent, but by 
cultivation of taste. Rome owed to Greece all her 
genius for poetry, her knowledge of philosophy, her 
skill in historical composition. To Greece, then, the 
scholar first turns, in order to seek for the germs of 
that intellectual excellence, which, when expanded 
and matured, has influenced and formed the taste of 
the most civilized nations in Europe. 

In forming a correct estimate of Greek Litera- 
ture, the nation in which it took its rise must be 
viewed in two different and, as it at first sight 
appears, somewhat contradictory aspects; first, in its 
oneness as a nation, next in its subdivision into 
different races, distinct enough to give rise to almost 

a2 



IV PREFACE. 

opposite intellectual phenomena, but not enough to 
destroy nationality. Unity and combination against 
the non-Greek, or, as the Greeks called it, the Barba- 
rian element of the human race, and jealousy between 
the opposing sections of the Hellenic portion, con- 
stitute the key to Greek Political History, and it is 
the leading principle also in Greek Intellectual and 
Literary History. In everything relating to Greece 
this tendency to union, accompanied with an insur- 
mountable principle of disunion and division of race, 
is discernible. The natural boundaries of river and 
mountain presented at one and the same time ob- 
stacles to physical and moral amalgamation, and yet, 
notwithstanding this separation, there was a sympathy 
between Greek and Greek which never existed 
between Greek and Barbarian. 

In literature, as in their political and social rela- 
tions, the author, to whatever race he might belong, 
found common sympathies, to which he could appeal, 
and which he was sure to awaken. Hence each poet, 
although local in blood, in prejudices, in principles, 
was boasted of by Greece universal as the common 
property of the Hellenic name. No one could fail 
to observe the difference between Ionian, iEolian, 
Dorian, Boeotian and Sicilian; and yet to see in all, the 
common features which distinguish the Greek nation 



PREFACE. Y 

from the other nations of the world. It is in the 
earliest phase of Greek literature that nationality is 
most manifest. Homer was an Ionian, and displays 
all the intellectual characteristics of the Ionian 
race, yet he unites in himself the peculiarities of the 
other races likewise. He is the representative of the 
Greek national mind. The versatility which could 
paint all the varied elements which go to make up 
Greek character, must have been the attribute of a 
nature possessing in itself somewhat of each of them. 
In the Homeric poems the terse, rude and satiric 
wit of the Dorian occasionally appears amid the 
graceful polish of the Ionian. Achilles, the chieftain 
of the Thessalian mountaineers, Ulysses, the monarch 
of the enduring and wily islanders, are portraits 
evidently the work of one who could understand and 
sympathize with the feelings of both of them. 

But whilst it is necessary to bear in mind the unity 
and nationality of Greek literature, it is also impor- 
tant to remark the different intellectual peculiarities 
which characterize the great races into which Greece 
was divided. The refined and energetic mind of the 
Ionian developed itself in the epic, elegiac and 
iambic poetry ; and their poetical genius reached its 
zenith in the activity and life-like representations of 
the Attic tragedy and comedy. In prose, the same 



VI PREFACE. 

mind was the first to exercise its acuteness and inge- 
nuity in philosophical speculations, and to satisfy its 
inquisitive thirst after knowledge in the wide field of 
historical inquiry ; for with them history, as the name 
implies (/Wof/a), was at first not mere compilation 
((jvyyguQyi), but original investigation. The same 
structure of the ear which led to the modulation of 
Ionic poetry, gave birth to the melodious dialect in 
which Herodotus and Hecatseus narrated their stories; 
and when a modern dialect succeeded, and literature 
was transplanted to the soil of Attica, we recognize 
the same, or even greater, sweetness in Attic purity 
and simplicity. The philosophical spirit there com- 
bined with the habit of historical research, and Ionian 
Athens gave birth to Thucydides, the father of philo- 
sophical history, as Asiatic Ionia did to Herodotus, 
the father of the history of induction and inquiry. 

Again, the same talent developed itself in the 
critical faculty which was so strong in Aristotle, 
which could analyse the principles of beauty and of 
taste, and thus reduce to rule and system, and bring 
within the province of art and science the laws 
which in these matters regulate the operations of the 
human mind. And lastly, the imagination, combined 
with the logical power, produced oratory, which shed 
a lustre upon the decline and fall of Greek liberty. 



PREFACE. Vll 

Such was the career of Ionian and Attic intellect, 
far superior in every point of view but one to that of 
the Dorian and iEolian races ; for their characteristics, 
as might be expected from their origin, were the 
same. But there was one excellence peculiar to 
themselves. The palm in lyric poetry was due to 
the iEolians of Lesbos. They could boast of the 
passionate emotions of Alcseus, in which love, though 
full of tenderness, breathes an almost chivalrous 
respect for the beloved object, and is elevated far 
above a mere sensual passion. Theirs were the burn- 
ing strains of Sappho, whose simplicity, whatever 
may have been her faults, could not disguise her 
most secret thoughts and feelings. 

Again, the Dorian originated and cultivated the 
religious and fervid enthusiasm of the dithyrambic 
chorus, and then modifying and adapting it to the 
drama, handed down those beautiful odes which adorn 
the texture of Attic tragedy. They consecrated the 
lyric muse to the service of religion, and to the 
celebration of the victors in the national games of 
Greece. The prolific talent of Simonides exhibited 
itself in his numerous epinician odes, and still more in 
his plaintive and pathetic threni. And the lofty 
Pindar far outstripped his contemporary, Simonides, 
if not in feeling, at least in grandeur. Such were the 



Vlli PREFACE. 

claims of the Dorian race to literary reputation ; but 
these were all. Their very chorus was not finished 
and brought to perfection by themselves, but by the 
genius of the Attic dramatists. They had no history, 
no oratory, no philosophy. 

The literature of Greece has been stamped, by 
universal testimony, as beyond comparison with that 
of subsequent periods. We admire and imitate the 
Greeks, but we cannot equal them. We take their 
works as models, not arbitrarily, but after putting 
them to the test of those principles of taste which 
form part of our nature; and when put to this test 
they never fail. 

But Greek literature is not only admirable, as pre- 
senting a picture of the human intellect in its highest 
state of perfection, but also for its moral value. It is 
a monument to all ages of unselfish industry, of en- 
thusiastic devotion to a great purpose. Each author 
seems impressed with the idea that he has a duty to 
perform, a message to deliver. The lower motives 
which too often give an impulse to the literature of 
modern times, did not influence them. The poet, the 
philosopher, the historian, were urged on by an irre- 
sistible devotion to their work, or at least felt no 
motive more selfish than a desire to be loved and 
admired by their contemporaries, or to enjoy an undy- 



PREFACE. IX 

ing reputation in after ages. Private means were, in 
many cases, only considered valuable as affording to 
the possessor an opportunity for indulging his tastes, 
and undertaking a literary career. They were un- 
grudgingly expended in procuring a liberal education 
and the advantages of foreign travel, for their own 
sakes, and not with any hope of a pecuniary return. 
Few writers think so little of self as the ancients ; 
their minds and thoughts are absorbed in that of 
which they write, their sentiments are freely re- 
vealed in their works ; but it is very difficult to derive 
from them any information respecting themselves. 
Although, therefore, it is impossible not to admire the 
unselfishness from which this results, it is a cause of 
regret that, for the same reason, the sources from 
which their private histories are derived are often of 
doubtful credit. 

Only a few words are necessary respecting the 
author's object in giving to the public this work, and 
the mode in which he has carried it into effect. He 
feels that apologies are due for venturing on a field in 
which so many, superior to himself in abilities and 
learning, have already successfully laboured ; but he 
wished to collect within a moderate compass such 
facts and observations as might be interesting to the 
general reader, but which are now scattered over a 



X PREFACE. 

wide surface, and cannot be brought together without 
pains and trouble. 

To the researches of his predecessors in the history 
of ancient literature, and to the labours of modern 
philologers, especially Mr. Donaldson, he acknowledges 
the deepest obligation. As the present work is the 
result of reading and study during a period in which, 
from the position which he has occupied, it has been his 
duty to collect information from all possible sources, 
he cannot always say to whose investigations particu- 
lar statements are due, nor can he always separate his 
own original observations from those which he has 
derived from other authorities. 

Owing to the limits within which he has wished to 
confine himself, he has often stated the conclusions to 
which he has come, without entering into the grounds 
and reasons on which they are based. He hopes, 
therefore, that this apology will be accepted, for some 
parts of the work being in a dogmatic form, instead 
of that controversial one which, to the minds of some 
readers, appears more satisfactory. 

From the same desire to economize space, he has 
almost always contented himself with giving references 
to illustrative passages, instead of quoting the passages 
themselves ; whilst, at the same time, he has inserted 
translations, in order that the sense and spirit of the 



PREFACE. XI 

author may be conveyed to those who are unacquainted 
with the language of the original. 

If the reader recognizes in this work statements 
which are already familiar to him, and observations 
which appear trite, they will be found, it is hoped, 
such as could not be omitted in a work which pro- 
fesses to be a history. If, on the contrary, he observes 
what he considers important omissions, let him remem- 
ber that it was the author's duty to exercise his 
judgment, to the best of his power, in making a 
selection from a vast mass of materials. It will 
readily be believed that one of the principal difficul- 
ties which the author has encountered in his task, has 
been the making this selection, and determining what 
might be omitted, without violating the fidelity of 
history. 

In most instances the author believes that his state- 
ments are justified by competent authority; wherever 
he has given his own views and opinions, he offers 
them with diffidence, as to their correctness, although 
he has adopted them as the result of deliberate 
conviction. 



CONTENTS TO VOL. I. 



BOOK I. 

FIRST ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Limits of this work. — Its twofold division. — Origin and affi- 
nities of the Greek language — Indo-European and Semitic 
races. — Their languages compared. — The Greek dialects. — Con- 
nexion of the Ionians with the Pelasgians. — Origin of the 
Greek alphabet. . . . . . .1 

CHAPTER II. 

Poetry precedes Prose literature. — First developments of 
Greek poetry religious. — Worship of Nature. — Greek climate. 
— Worship of the Sun-god. — Ancient traditions. — Linus. — 
Hylas. — Lityerses. — Adonis. — Bards. — Testimony of Homer. — 
Orpheus. — Eumolpus. — Thamyris. — Musaeus. — Chrysothemis. 
— Philammon. — Olen. . . . . .20 

CHAPTER, III. 

No actual literature before Homer. — His birth-place. — Dif- 
ferent traditions reconciled. — Argument in favour of Smyrna. 
— Difficult to determine whether he was an Ionian or an 



xiv CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



iEolian. — Life by Herodotus and Suidas. — Importance of this 
legendary biography. — The Chorizontes, or Separators. — Their 
doctrines reviewed. — Payne Knight. — Nitzsch. . .31 

CHAPTER IV. 

Theory of Hedelin and Perrault. — Heyne. — Bentley's sequel. 
— Wood's Essay on Homer. — Wolfs Prolegomena. — The 
grounds of Wolf's theory. — Observations of Nitzsch in opposi- 
tion to Wolf's arguments. — How far he agrees with his oppo- 
nent. — Argument from the state of the language. — Power of 
memory — The question can only be decided by internal evi- 
dence. — Wolf denies the poetical unity of the poems. — Interpo- 
lations and alterations highly probable. — The materials of the 
poems. — Ancient lays. — Objection to Heyne's hypothesis. — 
Lachmann's hypothesis. . . . . .41 

CHAPTER V. 

I. Language, style, and taste of the Iliad. — Homeric verse. — 
Simile. — Dramatic power. — Other points of resemblance. — 
Language, versification, etc., of the Odyssey. — Style of the 
Iliad and Odyssey compared. — II. Plan of the Iliad and 
Odyssey. — Epitomes of both. — General observations. . . 52 

CHAPTER VI. 

III. Consistency in the characters. — Their individuality. — 
Achilles. — Agamemnon. — Menelaus. — Nestor. — Ajax. — Dio- 
mede. — Odysseus. — Hector. — Priam. — Paris. — Helen. — 
Hecuba. — Andromache. — Telemachus. — Penelope. — Euryclea. 
— Nausicaa. — Eumseus. — The conditions required by the oppo- 
nents of Homer's personality not fulfilled. — The most probable 
theory. — Reason why spurious poems and passages were re- 
ceived as genuine. — Passages which have been considered as 
interpolations. — Wolf's opinion of his own arguments. — What 
historic truth is contained in the Homeric poems. . . 78 



CONTENTS. XV 



CHAPTER VII. 



PAGE 



The Homeric age. — Division of the subject. — Value of 
Homeric testimony. — Religion. — Zeus and the other deities. — 
Worship. — No Hero-worship. — Divination. — Dreams. — Future 
state. — Government. — Kingly power hereditary and limited. — 
Administration of Justice. — Social habits and institutions. — 
Hospitality. — Barbarism in war. — Insecure state of society. — 
Love. — The condition of the Female sex. — Female employ- 
ments. — Households. — Marriage. — Old age. — Death. — Science. 
— Astronomy. — Geography. — Medicine. — Arithmetic. — Poetry. 
— Oratory. — Music. — Statuary. — Painting. — Ornamental arts. 
— Useful arts. — Art of War. . . . .95 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Homeric hymns and minor poems. — Proof that they are spu- 
rious. — The hymn preludes. — Battle of Frogs and Mice. — 
Margites. — Hesiod. — Climate of Bceotia as compared with that 
of the Asiatic coast. — Dulness attributed to the Boeotians. — 
Causes of it. — Parallel drawn between Bceotia and Germany. — 
Characteristic features of the Hesiodic poetry. — The age of 
Hesiod subsequent to that of Homer. — Proof of this from lan- 
guage, philosophy, and geography. — Imitations of Homer. — 
Notices of Hesiod contained in his works. — Works and Days. — 
Theogony. — Eoe?e. — Cyclic Poets. . . . .123 

CHAPTER IX. 

Elegies and Iambics the literature of free institutions. — 
Elegy soft as well as patriotic. — Its musical accompaniment. — 

Its metre compared with the Epic. — Callinus. — Tyrteeus. 

Archilochus. — Simonides. — Mimnermus. — Solon. — Theognis. 
— Xenophanes of Elea.— Phocylides. — Iambics.— Archilochus 
of Paros. — He invented the Epode. — Simonides of Amorgos 
and Solon.— Hipponax. — Choliambic metre.— Hesiod's fable 
the oldest. — Archilochus and Stesichorus. — iEsop. — His life. 137 



XVI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Greek Music. — Terpander the inventor of musical science. — 
The Greeks did not understand harmony. — Definition of 
dp/jLovacij. — The three genera. — Improvements introduced by 
Terpander. — The colours. — Modes. — The Dorian mode the 
oldest. — Character of Dorian music. — Conservative principles 
of the Dorians. — Eleven-stringed lyre of Timotheus. — Olympus 
of Phrygia. — Thaletas of Crete. . . . .152 



CHAPTER XL 

Lyric poetry. — ■ Its two schools or subdivisions. — Their 
general characteristic features compared. — The Dorian lyric 
examined in detail. — Pseans. — Nomes. — Hyporchemes.— Par- 
thenia. — Prosodia. — Dithyrambs. — Cyclian chorus. — Etymo- 
logy of dithyramb. — The worship of Apollo and Diana a 
criterion of Doric origin. — Simplicity of Dorian belief. — Cha- 
racteristics of Apollo. — Scolia, etc. — Eumelus. — Alcman. — 
Arion. — The legend told by Herodotus. — Alcseus. — Sappho. — 
Her character and biography. — Erinna. . . .159 



CHAPTER XII. 

Stesichorus. — Biography. — Legends. — Characteristics of his 
poetry. — The improver of Bucolic poetry. — Ibycus. — The 
cranes of Ibycus.— Anacreon. — The poems attributed to him 
spurious. — Biography. — His associates, especially Mimnermus. 
— Story of his death. — Simonides. — His life. — Legend respect- 
ing him. — Epitaph on Archedice. — Bacchylides. — Pindar. — 
Characteristic features of his age. — Rise and progress of Boeo- 
tian poetry. — Biography. — Style of Pindar's poetry. — Epini- 
cian odes. — His mode of producing variety. — Advice of Corinna. 
— Religious character of Pindar's mind. — Testimony of Horace. 
— Pindaric metres. . . . . . .183 



CONTENTS. XVli 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGE 

Poetry naturally precedes Prose composition. — Causes which 
probably led to the introduction of Prose writing. — The 
change gradual. — Influence of political circumstances. — The 
era of the Seven Sages. — Periander. — Pittacus. — Thales. — 
Solon. — Cleobulus. — Bias. — Chilon. — Sacerdotal and Orphic 
literature. — Ionia the parent of prose literature as well as 
of poetry. — The Logographi. — The character of their works. — 
Their authority. — Cadmus. — Acusilaus. — Hecatseus. . .204 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Greek Philosophy owed its origin to the Greek mind, and 
not to foreign influences. — Influence of religion, poetry, and 
politics. — Pherecydes of Syros first treated of philosophical 
subjects. — There was, however, as yet, no philosophical system. 
— Thales the first physical philosopher. — The earliest philoso- 
phical doctrines difficult to discover. — The Oriental origin of 
Greek philosophy insisted on by comparatively modern autho- 
rities. — Arguments against this theory. — Period at which Ori- 
ental doctrines were first infused into Greek philosophy. — 
Point of resemblance between the philosophical and poetical 
literature of Greece. — Philosophy followed the subdivisions 
of the Greek nation. — The Ionian and Dorian schools. — The 
Eleatic school, — Its relation to the other two. . . 225 

CHAPTER XV. 

Two systems in the Ionian school, the dynamical and mecha- 
nical. — The philosophy of Thales. — Anaximander. — Anaxi- 
menes. — Heraclitus. — Pythagoras. — Bis doctrines of number 
and harmony. — His theory of the human soul. — His belief in 
the superiority of intellectual activity to corporeal organiza- 
tion. — The Eleatic school. — Its origin. — Xenophanes. — His 
history and doctrines. . . . 241 



VOL. I. 



XVlll CONTENTS. 



BOOK II. 



SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Age of Pisistratus. — Establishment of Tyrannies in Greece. — 
Patronage of literature by Pisistratus. — The Drama. — Drama- 
tic taste of the Ionian race. — Nature of dramatic poetry. — 
Religious character of the Attic drama. — Religious drama of 
the Romish Church. — The religion of Greece not unfavourable 
to the drama, or to its forming a part of an act of worship. — 
The ludicrous element natural to the Dionysiac worship. — 
Some nations destitute of dramatic literature. — The two ele- 
ments of the drama, the chorus and the dialogue. — The chorus 
is (1) the religious and moral element, and (2) the representa- 
tion of the spectators. — The essence of the drama is the 
dialogue. — Lyrical comedy and tragedy. . . .259 

CHAPTER II. 

Origin of the dialogue. — Account given by Aristotle. — 
Origin of the terms rpayw^'a and ka>juw£/a. — Twofold nature 
of the Dionysiac worship. — Its history and introduction into 
Greece. — Amalgamation of it with the Eleusinian worship of 
Iacchus. — The progressive advance of the Tragic drama traced. 
— Introduction of satyrs. — Arion. — Thespis. — Phrynichus. — 
Chcerilus.— Pratinas. — Athenian political and dramatic great- 
ness contemporaneous. . . . . .273 

CHAPTER III. 

Homeric spirit of the three great tragic poets. — Their reli- 
gious belief and mythology compared with those of Homer. — 
Successive eras of poetry and religious belief. — iEschylus, his 



CONTENTS. XIX 

PAGE 

life. — Observations upon the style and language of iEschylus. 
— His extant tragedies. — The Persians. — The Seven against 
Thebes. — The Suppliants. — The Prometheus Bound. — The 
Orestean trilogy, Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides. — 
Symbolism of this trilogy. — Political object of the Eume- 
nides. — Quotations. . . . . . .285 

CHAPTER IV. 

Sophocles compared with iEschylus. — His birth, parentage, 
and education. — Dramatic success. — Appointed one of the 
Ten Generals. — Unfitness for the office. — His political senti- 
ments and conduct. — The unnatural conduct of his son Iophon. 
— Chorus in the (Edipus Coloneus. — His death. — Epigrams of 
Simonides and Simmias. — Character of his poetry. — The ethical 
character of the Sophoclean drama. — His dramatic reforms. — The 
number of his compositions. — The chronological order of those 
extant. — Antigone. — Electra. — The grandeur of iEschylus con- 
trasted with the beauty of Sophocles. . . . 305 

CHAPTER V. 

The three tragic poets form successive eras in literary taste. — 
These are analogous to the progress made by the individual 
mind. — Euripides, his life and character. — Religious, poli- 
tical and philosophical sentiments unpopular. — Unjustly slan- 
dered. — His supposed hatred of the female sex. — Story of his 
marriages and divorces. — His exile, death, and epitaph. — The 
age of Euripides a philosophical era. — The effects of this on his 
poetry. — Was Euripides the most tragic of poets ? — His pro- 
logues. — The real objections to them. — The use which he makes 
of Divine interposition. — His political principles. — His fond- 
ness for special pleading. — His lyric power. — Monodies. — 
Chronological list of plays. — Alcestis. — Medea. — Hecuba. — 
Electra. — Cyclops. — Passages from the tragedies of Euripides. 
— Ion. — Achaeus. — Agathon. — Euphorion. — Iophon. — The 
younger Sophocles and Euripides. — Chaeremon. — Theodectes. 321 



XX CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Situation and construction of the Theatre of Dionysus. — 
Date of its building. — Seats. — Thymele. — Stage. — Scenery.— 
Partly architectural, partly painted. — Curtain. — Logeion. — The 
effect produced by the grouping. — Size of theatre. — Con- 
trivances to remedy the inconvenience of distance. — The theatre 
roofless, and therefore natural and artificial scenery was com- 
bined. — The Greeks lived in the open air. — Machinery The 

eccyclema, and the occasions on which it was used. — Instru- 
mental music. — Decorations of the orchestra and thymele. — 
Purposes for which the theatre was used. — The four Dionysia. — 
Liturgies and theoric fund. — Number and arrangement of 
tragic chorus. — Costume. — Distribution of parts amongst the 
actors. — Greek tragedy not like modern opera. . . 343 

CHAPTER VII. 

The law of Blood-guilt.— Its early origin. — The form in which 
it was incorporated into the Athenian code. — Mention of it in 
the Iliad and Odyssey. — View in which it was regarded by 
tragic poets. — Ceremonies of purification. — Sources from which 
the subjects of Greek tragedy were derived. — Reverence 
for their ancient monarchs not inconsistent with Athenian 
liberty. — Some previous familiarity with the plot considered 
desirable. — Distance of time prevented tragedy from exciting 
the feelings too strongly. — Instruction given on matters of 
modern interest through the medium of ancient legend. — Ex- 
amples from iEschylus and Euripides. . . .365 



CONTENTS OP VOL. II. 



BOOK II. {continued). 

SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The descriptive accuracy and general truthfulness of Greek 
Literature. — In estimating this, two considerations necessary 
— 1. The changes which have taken place in the face of the 
country, — 2. Love for the softer beauties of Nature. — Why the 
Greeks do not describe landscapes. — The poets did not act 
disingenuously in selecting particular features for description. 

— Place which the sea occupies in Greek poetry. — Whenever 
truth is wanted the Greek poets are always truthful. — Instances 
of Homeric accuracy. — This accuracy made use of as an argu- 
ment against Homer's personality. — Such objections answered. 

— Similar accuracy in iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. — 
Truthfulness the characteristic of Greek literature. — Irony. — 
Litotes. — iEschylus, — Aristophanes. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Comedy, its origin. — Etymology. — First exhibited in Icaria 
by Susarion. — Epicharmus, his life, and character of his come- 
dies. — Phormis. — Dinolochus. — Attic comedy, its threefold 

VOL. II. b 



vi CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



division. — Character of the old comedy, as traced in that of 
Aristophanes. — Its refinement, its elegance, and its grossness. — 

Its effects for good and for evil Its impartiality. — Laws by 

which it was prohibited. — The Parabasis. . . .14 



CHAPTER X. 

Chionides. — Magnes. — Quotation from Aristophanes respect- 
ing him. — Cratinus. — Horace's opinion of him. — Testimony 
of Aristophanes. — Eupolis. — Story of his death. — Crates. — 

Fragment of one of his comedies translated by Cumberland 

Quotation from Aristophanes. — His life. — Age at which a 
dramatic poet could exhibit. — His first comedy, the Ban- 
queters, — the Acharnians, — the Knights, — the Clouds, — the 
Wasps, — the Peace, — the Lysistrata, — Thezmophoriazusse, — 
the Ecclesiazusae, — the Frogs, — the Birds, — the Plutus. — 
Chronological Table. . . . . .25 

CHAPTER XI. 

Why History was cultivated earlier among the Semitic 
nations than among the Greeks. — Pherecydes of Leros. — His 
works. — Charon of Lampsacus. — Hellanicus. — Herodorus of 
Heraclea. — Herodotus. — The improvements which he intro- 
duced into history. — His birth, parentage, native city. — His 
sources of information. — His travels. — The tradition that he 
recited his history at the Olympic Games. — His residence at 
Samos, Athens, and Thurii. — He did not travel much in Italy. 
— Some of his ideas taken from Sophocles. — His poetic talents. 
— Method in which he introduces his digressions. — His autho- 
rity as an historian. — His style of writing. — His religious 
sentiments. — The geography of Herodotus. . . .49 

CHAPTER XII. 

Philosophical History. — Thucydides its inventor. — His life. 
— Extent of his history. — The authenticity of the eighth book 
examined. — Summary of Greek history in the first book. — 



CONTENTS. vii 

PAGE 

Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton. — The plan of his history. 
— Digressions. — Chronological arrangement. — The advantage 
of his being a contemporary historian. — The speeches of Thu- 
cydides. — Their value. — Their style. — Truthfulness in his 
general narrative. — Graphic power. — His chief intellectual 
qualities. — Herodotus and Thucydides compared. . .76 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Xenophon. — His birth. — Connexion with Socrates. — Joins 
the expedition of Cyrus. — The Retreat of the Ten Thousand. — 
His history of it. — Argument of the work. — His manner of 
life in his retirement at Scillus. — The Hellenics. — The Cyro- 
paedia. — The Memorabilia of Socrates. — The view of the Socra- 
tic doctrines contained in it compared with that of Plato. — 
Other treatises of Xenophon. — General character of his works. 
— Ctesias. — His works on Assyrian and Persian history, and on 
the natural history of India, of little value. . . .94 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Eloquence a feature of Greek literature. — Examples. — Sici- 
lian schools of eloquence. — Tisias and Corax. — Greek prose 
improved by the Sophists. — First school of rhetoric at Athens 
established by Gorgias. — Rivalry between the orators and 

philosophers. — Oratory abused during Peloponnesian war 

Constitution and character of the Athenian ecclesia. — Exam- 
ples. — The externals of oratory most appreciated by the 
Athenians. — Care taken in the composition of orations. — Ne- 
cessary qualifications of an orator. — The influence of free insti- 
tutions on oratory. . . . . . .108 

CHAPTER XV. 

Earliest written orations. — Antiphon. — His life and occupa- 
tion. — Resemblance of his style to that of Thucydides. — Ando- 
cides. — His life, politics, and dates of his extant orations. — His 
troubles and exile. — Value of his orations. — Lysias. — Migrates 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

to Thurii. — Is exiled, and returns to Athens. — Assists Thrasy- 
bulus and his party. —His style.— Influence of Herodotus on it. 
— Influence of Isocrates on oratory. — Various criticisms on his 

style. — His life and suicide. — Isaeus Little known of his life. 

— He was a pupil of Lysias and Isocrates, and instructor of 
Demosthenes. ...... 125 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Circumstances which led to the perfection of oratory. — 
Parentage and birth of Demosthenes. — Dishonesty of his guar- 
dians. — ■ His self-education. — Acts as choregus. — Prosecutes 
Midias. — Instances in which he distinguished himself as an 
orator. — His Philippic and Olynthiac orations, — His denuncia- 
tion of the treachery of iEschines. — His speech De Corona. — 

Imprisonment. — Exile. — Death ■ Criticism on his style. — 

iEschines. — His parentage and family. — He was schoolmaster, 
secretary, soldier and ambassador. — Sent on two occasions as 
delegate to the Amphictyonic council. — His exile and death. — 
Hyperides. — His upright character. — Accuses Demosthenes. — 
Leaves Athens. — His death. — Demades. — His great talents and 
unprincipled character. — His death. — Lycurgus. — His financial 

abilities Anecdote related by Plutarch. — Statue erected to his 

honour. — Dinarchus. — His birth, politics, and style. . . 1 34 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Philosophy flourished later than literature Diogenes of 

Apollonia. — His physical theory. — Anaxagoras. — His character 
and philosophical system. — His inconsistencies. — His theory of 
knowledge. — His system compared with that of his predeces- 
sors. — Parmenides. — The time of his birth uncertain. — Cele- 
brated as a legislator. — A moral poet rather than a philoso- 
pher. — His view of human nature mournful. — Zeno. — His 
connexion with Parmenides. — Founder of dialectics. — His 
fallacies. — His physics.— Melissus. — His system a negative one. 
■ — His physics nearly those of the Eleatic school. — Empedocles. 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

— Some of his doctrines Pythagorean. — He is said to have 
invented rhetoric. — Fable mixed up with his life. — He refused 
the tyranny. — His doctrine of the Deity. — Necessity. — The 
elements. ....... 152 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The natural philosophy of the early Greek schools of no 
value. — This is not the case with mental and moral philosophy. 
— Progress of these branches of philosophy. — Athens now the 
seat of philosophy. — Causes which led to her literary and phi- 
losophical as well as political supremacy. — Why history took 
precedence of philosophy at Athens. — Review of the state of 
philosophy. — The Sophists. — They improved Greek prose, and 
directed man to the study of himself. — The character of the 
times at which they flourished. — State of education. — The 
sophists became the public instructors. — Their abilities. — How 
they performed their functions. — Evidence of the existence of 
" sophistical " teaching. — The extent to which the philosophers 
are correct in their estimate of the sophists. — The fact that so 
little remains of their works proves that they were of little 
value. . . . . . . .169 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Socrates. — The practical character of his philosophy. — His 
birth, parentage, and early life. — His daemon. — Alcibiades, 
Xenophon, and the younger Pericles his pupils. — Causes of his 
unpopularity and persecution. — His public conduct on three 
remarkable occasions. — His apology and condemnation. — His 
death. — His mode and occasions of teaching. — Why his teach- 
ing was so often political. — The Socrates of Plato seems to 
differ from that of Xenophon. — They give his teaching from 
opposite points of view. — Why he valued moral above physical 
and mathematical science. — Difficulty of eliciting the doctrines 
of Socrates from the writings of Xenophon and Plato. — His 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



first great doctrine the existence of truth. — His second the 
existence of God. — His doctrines arranged under three heads, 
— I. His idea of God, — II. The immortality of the soul, — 
III. His moral theory. — The contradictory part of his teaching 184 



CHAPTER XX. 

Biography of Aristippus. — The Cyrenaic school the parent of 
the Epicurean philosophy. — Its doctrines degenerate and cor- 
rupt. — Points of resemblance between the teaching of Aristippus 
and Socrates. — The Cyrenaic fourfold division of the subjects 
of science. — Life of Antisthenes. — Negative character of the 
Cynic philosophy. — ■ The style of Antisthenes. — His teaching 
generally ethical. — His logic. — The unpopularity of his moral 
teaching caused it to be misrepresented. — Euclides, and the 
school of Megara. — The doctrines of Euclides partly Eleatic, 
partly Socratic. ...... 208 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Biography of Plato. — His travels. — Objects of his three jour- 
neys to Sicily. — False views respecting his philosophy. — 
Testimony of Aristotle. — The beauty of his style. — The drama- 
tic character of the Platonic dialogue. — The dialogues arranged 
in trilogies and tetralogies. — Some arrangement necessary. — 
The difficulties and mode of reconciling them. — His spurious 
writings. — Points to which attention must be paid in arranging 
his genuine works. — The dialogues which are the most Socratic 
not necessarily the earliest. — The true test of their order.— 
Schleiermacher's arrangement. . . . .219 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Plato's idea of philosophy. — The relation which the one 
bears to the many. ^-Science one.— Its object the knowledge of 
God. — The relative position which other sciences occupy. — 
Divisions of the Platonic philosophy.— Senses in which he uses 



CONTENTS. xi 

PAGE 

the term dialectic. — Dialectic. — He confutes preexisting errors. 
— Knowledge not the result of sensation. — The consequence of 
the Eleatic theories. — Plato's own theory of the relation of mind 
to matter. — The doctrine of the idea. — Idealism and conceptu- 
alism compared. — Plato's idea of God. — His description of 
Deity. — Doctrine of reminiscence. — Statement of physical 
theory in the Timseus. — Arguments by which it is established. 
— The soul of the world. — The soul of man. — Its nature and 
immortality. — The objects of the Symposium and the Phsedo 
compared. — One great argument for immortality to which the 
rest are subordinate. — Mythical representations. — Free will. — 
Origin of evil. . . . . . .234 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Physical science subordinate to ethical. — Threefold division 
of Ethics. — Relation of " the good " to pleasure. — Apparent 
inconsistencies in Plato's ethical system. — Special goods. — 
Virtue. — Its fourfold division. — Justice. — Connexion of ethics 
and politics. — Sacrifice of private rights to public good. — 
Analogy of the state to the individual. — Mixed forms of 
government best. — Views of the republic modified in the laws. 
— Education. — Music and poetry. — The Platonic number. — 
The Cratylus. — 'The successors of Plato. . . .257 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Aristotle. — The uncertainty of his biography. — His birth- 
place and parentage. — Visits Athens. — Becomes a pupil of 
Plato. — His attachment to his tutor. — His embassy to the 
court of Philip. — Controversy with Isocrates. — Becomes tutor 
to Alexander the Great. — Course of education adopted. — Re- 
turns to Athens. — Lectures in the Lyceum. — His manner of 
teaching. — False charge of poisoning Alexander. — His volu- 
minous works. — Munificence of Alexander. — Persecution of 
Aristotle. — Flies to Chalcis. — His death. — Appointment of a 
successor. — His appearance. — His style contrasted with that of 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PACK 

Plato. — His style influenced by the age in which he lived. — 

His deference for authority The practical character of his 

mind. — His views limited to this life. — Division of his works. 
— Meaning of Esoteric and Exoteric. — His habit of induction. 
— Defect in his ethics. — His philosophy contrasted with that of 
Plato. ... ... 373 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Logic fully developed by Aristotle. — His Organon. — The 
Categories, their nature and application. — The treatise on the 
Proposition. — The two Analytics. — The Topics. — Fallacies. — 
His Metaphysics. — Origin of the term. — The origin of know- 
ledge. — The objects of sensation. — Matter. — Form. — Motion. — 
Final cause. — Energy. — Entelechy. — Idea of God. — Physics. — 
Exactness not to be expected in physical and moral science*, — 
Theory of the human soul. — Sensation. — Imagination. — 
Memory. — System of the universe. — Ethical and political phi- 
losophy. — General sketch of the Ethics. — Its connexion with 
political science. . . . . .292 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Economics. — Slavery. — Analogy of a family to a state. — 
Politics. — Definition of a state. — Two subjects for consideration. 

— Three forms of government. — Three degenerate forms. — 
Property qualification a safe principle. — The anti-democratic 
bias of Aristotle. — State of political opinion at Athens. — Influ- 
ences acting upon the opinions of Aristotle. — His honesty. — 
His leading principle. — Internal arrangements. — Property. — 
Education. — Rhetoric, its real object. — Analysis of the Rhetoric. 

— Analysis of the Poetic. — Critical spirit of the age. — Con- 
clusion. ....... 312 



Appendix . . . . • • 333 



A HISTORY 

OF 

CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

PART I. 

GREEK LITERATURE. 



BOOK I. 

FIRST ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

LIMITS OF THIS WORK. ITS TWOFOLD DIVISION. ORIGIN AND AFFI- 
NITIES OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE. INDO-EUROPEAN AND SEMITIC 

RACES. — THEIR LANGUAGES COMPARED. THE GREEK DIALECTS. : 

CONNEXION OF THE IONIANS WITH THE PELASGIANS. ORIGIN OF 

THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

The Classical literature of a nation includes, 
strictly speaking, only the works of its best authors. 
Its era is that during which the national intellect 
is in its greatest vigour and health; when the 
language, which is the exponent of that intellect, 
exhibits the most perfect refinement and purity ; 
when Poetry, Philosophy and History are in their 
most flourishing condition. 

VOL. I. B 



2 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

This definition excludes the period of its rise and 
progress towards perfection, as well as that of its 
decline and fall ; but it is obvious that a history, even 
of its flourishing period, although it naturally termi- 
nates when that period comes to a close, must trace 
its growth and development from the earliest times. 

An inquiry, therefore, into the Classical literature 
of Greece divides itself into two heads : — 

I. The era which extends from the infancy of 
literature, unwritten as well as written, to the time 
of the Pisistratidse. It includes the time when the 
Ionian Greeks were struggling against the over- 
whelming power of Cyrus, and terminates with their 
subjugation towards the end of the sixth century 
before Christ. 

II. The era at which the national literature had 
attained its highest state of perfection. During this 
era the Tragic Drama rapidly arrived at maturity, and 
suddenly became extinct; Comedy flourished; History 
assumed its most perfect form, and Athens came 
to be considered the home of Philosophy. This 
period commences with Simonides, and ends with 
Aristotle. It includes the Persian and Peloponnesian 
wars, the subsequent years during which Grecian 
liberty was in a tottering state, and had a hard strug- 
gle for existence, until at length the supremacy of 
Macedon completed its destruction. 

At this point, then, will end that portion of this 
work which is devoted to the history of Greek Clas- 
sical literature. 



GREEK LANGUAGE. 3 

But the history of a nation's literature implies some 
account of its language, and the important philolo- 
gical investigations which have distinguished the pre- 
sent age, furnish the materials for tracing the origin 
of the Greek language, and its affinities with other 
languages of the civilized world. 

Language is the material of literature, in the same 
way that the marble gives visible existence to the 
ideas and feelings of the sculptor. As the artist 
converts the shapeless block into a life-like statue, 
so the poet, the philosopher, and the historian breathe 
life into the dead letter of mere words. 

Again, the beauty of sculpture depends in no small 
degree on the fitness of the material for expressing 
and giving reality to the ideas of the artist. And 
in the same way, on the genius of a language, the 
character of a national literature will frequently 
depend. 

The first step towards exhibiting the origin of the 
Greek language, is to trace the earliest migrations 
of the human race. From Armenia there proceeded 
two great families. One, the Aramaic, or Semitic, 
gradually occupied the plains of Mesopotamia, and 
thence overspread Syria, Arabia, and North Africa, 
including Egypt; the other, the Iranian, or Indo- 
European, moved westward to Asia Minor, thence 
to India, and skirting in its migrations the northern 
shores of the Euxine and Caspian, penetrated into 
the colder and less fertile regions of Europe. These 
two races were equally gifted both corporeally and 

b 2 



4 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

intellectually ; to them are owing the literature and 
civilization of the world. 

To the Indo-European race we are indebted for 
the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the lan- 
guages of civilized Europe. To the Semitic we owe 
the alphabet and the means of committing ideas to 
writing. 

But whilst the Semitic race possessed, far earlier 
than the Indo-European, a phonetic alphabet of such 
power and perfection as to satisfy the requirements 
of both races, and to be capable of expressing and 
representing every sound, its comparative superiority, 
in point of language, ends here. The varied struc- 
ture of the Indo-European languages, the power of 
combination in their elements, the perfection of their 
grammatical principles, endowed them with greater 
capacity for forming a widely diffused and extended 
literature. The written literature of the Semitic 
race is of greater antiquity than that of the other, 
as is evident from a critical study of the sacred 
volume, an antiquity likewise established by the whole 
course of modern discovery ; but the varied power 
of inflexion, the luxuriant copiousness of grammatical 
forms in the Indo-European tongues, gave them a 
superior facility of accommodating themselves to the 
various modes of thought and feeling in different 
nations. 

In the Semitic languages, the roots are few in 
number, and composed of only two or three letters, 
and the formation of words by means of prefixes and 



GREEK LANGUAGE. 

affixes is simple, and in most cases similar ; hence, 
although there is weight and dignity, there is an 
absence of that variety of sound which, in the Classical 
languages, falls so agreeably on the ear, even although 
we are ignorant of the true pronunciation. Hebrew 
poetry, for example, is probably metrical, but we 
cannot discover those nice shades of rhythm and scan- 
sion, which in Greek and Latin are capable of being 
reduced to such exact rules. The only poetical pecu- 
liarities discoverable, are antitheses in sense and 
equally balanced periods, or sentences. 

The slightest acquaintance with the Classical lan- 
guages of antiquity is sufficient to show the advantage 
of varied grammatical inflexion, both as to sense and 
sound. The mind recognises with satisfaction the 
philosophical exactness with which they were able 
to express the most refined distinctions of human 
thought, the means which were at their disposal by 
composition and derivation, for forming a complete 
nomenclature in any science — a power which modern 
languages are obliged to borrow from them. 

Doubtless, the Greeks were distinguished by a vast 
amount of mental energy and subtlety of discrimina- 
tion, but it is clear that, whilst these natural gifts 
assisted in the rapid development of their language, 
the accommodating structure of the Indo-European 
languages was a powerful instrument to mould and 
educate their mental powers. 

Miiller a says on this subject, " That in the ancient 
* History of Greek Literature, p. 5. 



6 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

languages the words with their inflexions, clothed as 
it were with muscles and sinews, come forward like 
living bodies full of expression and character; while, 
in the modern tongues, the words seem shrunk up 
into mere skeletons." 

The ear, even of the uninitiated, is struck with 
the harmonious variety perceptible in the Greek 
language, and its fitness at once for the loftiest 
strains of heroic and dithyrambic poetry, the sweet 
pathos of the lyric muse, the rhythmical character of 
oratorical prose composition, and the simple home- 
liness and elegant perspicuity of narrative and con- 
versation. But whilst this is the charm resulting 
from variety of inflexion, the ear is also effectually 
addressed by the systematic rule which regulates 
these inflexions. Every different idea and relation 
has its different sound, but at the same time, as a 
general rule, every similar and kindred idea has a 
similar or kindred oral development. The ear, at- 
tuned as that of the Greek was to catch at every 
minutest difference in sound, and to discriminate with 
the nicest accuracy, was at once conscious of the sound, 
and the mind as readily recognised the mutual rela- 
tion of ideas, the adaptation of the parts, the depend- 
ence upon each other of the words in the sentence. 
The Greek language, then, was especially adapted to 
an age when literature and a literary taste were dissemi- 
nated far more by oral transmission than by writing. 

Even when the art of writing was discovered, and 
writing materials became sufficiently abundant ; con- 



PRINCIPLES OF GRAMMAR. 7 

venient means for a rapid and easy multiplication 
of copies were not at hand until the invention of 
printing ; hence recitation, and oratory, and the drama, 
and lectures, and the public and private conversations 
of philosophers were, for the most part, the vehicles 
of literature. It was most important, therefore, to 
the formation of a national literature, that the lan- 
guage should be one which addressed itself to the ear 
rather than to the eye. 

There was, besides the variety of inflexion, and the 
symmetry of principle which regulated inflexion, an- 
other important advantage which the Greek pos- 
sessed over modern languages. The grammar was 
the natural offshoot and product of the human mind ; 
it was the grammar of attraction rather than of go- 
vernment ; it presented itself as the natural normal 
form in which ideas strive for utterance rather than 
as artificial trammels to restrain and correct inaccu- 
racies of expression. To write accurate grammar was 
natural to them. 

The reverse would, as it were, have done violence 
to their nature. The very inaccuracies of the poets, 
and of so rapid a thinker as Thucydides, can be ac- 
counted for on the common laws which regulate 
human thought; even the familiar and conversational 
dialogues of Plato, and the jottings down of Aris- 
totle's note-books, are free from grammatical inac- 
curacies which we frequently meet with even in the 
polished essays of modern times. 

With the ancients, the order of thought was that 



8 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

in which the thoughts were expressed. The plastic 
nature of their languages allowed the thoughts to flow 
in words precisely as nature dictates. The arrange- 
ment of the words in a Latin or Greek sentence is 
determined by the relative importance of the ideas, 
and therefore the Classical is in fact the natural order, 
whilst the grammatical order is that, which is deter- 
mined by artificial rule. 

The same facility which assisted the ear in the 
appreciation of the sense, and led the hearer gra- 
dually onward together with the speaker, so that he 
grasped the ideas precisely as they originated in the 
speaker's mind, constituted one of the charms of Greek 
poetry. The laws of metre and of rhythm might 
fairly be more strict where the grammatical structure 
of a sentence did not fetter or circumscribe the order 
in which the words might be arranged ; and at the 
same time regular metrical analysis was perfectly com- 
patible with the infinite variety which Classical metre 
is capable of assuming. Hence a determinate quan- 
tity could be affixed by rule, or by authority, to every 
syllable which the tutored ear of modern scholars, 
even amid all the disadvantages under which we labour, 
is able to appreciate, but which must have spoken to 
the musical ear of the Greek in accents of which we 
can form no adequate idea. 

There can be little doubt, that, although the dialects 
of early Greece were very numerous, a variety of which 
Homer a was aware, the Greek language was originally 
a Iliad, ii. 804 ; iv. 437. 



ORIGIN OF HELLENIC TONGUE. 9 

the result of one regular plan. The manner in which 
Hellas originally became settled is of itself sufficient 
to account for the rise of many various forms out of one 
common matrix. The same causes which interfered 
with the mixture of races would produce difference of 
dialects and present a barrier to their fusion. The 
physical features of a country exercise an important 
influence in perpetuating or causing distinctions of dia- 
lect, on the one hand, and in preventing one language 
from being split into many cognate varieties, on the 
other. 

The vast open plains inhabited by the Semitic 
nations softened down the differences of languages 
and encouraged a similarity and uniformity in their 
structure, whilst the rivers and mountains which inter- 
sected Greece produced and maintained the characte- 
ristic forms of her several dialects, and hindered their 
amalgamation into one common Hellenic tongue. 
The following is the account which some philologists 
have given of its origin. The Pelasgi, who were the 
oldest inhabitants of Greece, and who, according to 
the authority of Herodotus/ spoke a barbarian, i.e., a 
foreign language, were allied to the Iranian tribes in 
the north of India; and consequently that element in 
the Greek language which exhibits an affinity for the 
Sanscrit is the Pelasgic, and hence the numerous 
resemblances in words and inflexions which are found 
to exist between the two languages. It is to this oldest 
element that the Latin is allied, which is now univer- 
a Herod, i. 57, 



10 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

sally allowed to be the older language of the two, 
and to resemble the Greek in the earliest phase of its 
existence. 

The Hellenes subsequently migrated into Greece, 
and the Hellenic element being added to the other, 
caused the older Pelasgian language to be looked upon 
as barbarous, when the Hellenes, who were an Ionian 
race, became the possessors of Attica. This element 
of the Greek language is said to have had an affinity 
to the Persian. 

A distinguished modern scholar 3 brings forward 
the examples of Democedes b and Themistocles c as 
proofs of some similarity existing between Greek 
and Persian ; and thus accounts for the facility with 
which these persons are represented as having learnt 
the latter language. 

According to this theory, then, the common or 
older element in the Greek and Latin languages would 
be the Pelasgian, and would have a close affinity with 
the Sanscrit ; whereas the new element which distin- 
guishes the Greek from the Latin would be the 
Hellenic, and be closely related to the Persian. 

When tradition, following the universal practice of 
legendary history, named races after imaginary pa- 
triarchs, and made Dorus ; iEolus, and Ion the offspring 
of Hellen, it was symbolizing the fact that the sub- 
divisions of the Hellenic race were the Dorians, 
iEolians, and Ionians. The Dorians, as their name 
implies, which has an affinity to other words signifying 
a Donaldson's New Cratyl. b Herod, iii. 130. c Thuc. i. 



THE PELASGIANS. 11 

mountains — such as Tor and Taurus, were the moun- 
taineers. The iEolians — whose habits and modes of 
thought, and therefore their literature, as seen in the 
compositions of the lyric poets of Lesbos, exhibit some 
mixture of Dorian feeling — sprang probably from an 
union of Dorian races with the Pelasgians of Thes- 
saly. For that reason they were termed Alokzig, or a 
mixed race. The lonians were so called, because they 
inhabited the coast (jfiuv). It was to their local habi- 
tation, and consequently their commercial and mari- 
time pursuits, and their intercourse with foreigners 
that they owed those peculiar characteristics, which 
distinguished them by so broad a line of demarcation 
from the Dorians and iEolians. Hence sprang their 
activity of mind, their enterprising disposition, their 
love of foreign travel, their restless desire of change, 
their liberal spirit, and attachment to. free institutions, 
the versatility of their intellectual powers, which is 
reflected in the wide extent and varied nature of their 
literature. 

Of the ancient Pelasgian race little certain is known, 
although their traces are visible throughout Europe 
and Asia, marking, wherever they are found, the 
progress of civilization. 

Herodotus asserts that they were barbarians ; a that 
they were the occupiers of the whole of Hellas ; that 
the inhabitants of Attica were once called Pelasgians ; b 
that the Athenians afterwards shared that country with 
them, and learnt from them some of their customs ; 
a Herod, i. 57. b Ibid. viii. 44. 



12 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

that their gods had no names ; a that judging from the 
Pelasgian settlements, which existed in his own day, 
their language was barbarous; 13 that they were expelled 
from Attica, and settled in Lemnos; c and that, together 
with change of race, the language of Attica changed 
also ; d that a wall attributed to Pelasgians existed at 
Athens, 6 a fact which is also alluded to by Thucydides, 
who speaks of a district of the city called the Pelas- 
gian/ Such is the imperfect account transmitted 
to us by the father of history. The mighty works 
which have marked their migration — the fortifications 
which they built (for their vastness called Cyclopean), 
relics of which even still remain — the undoubted fact 
that they were the founders of those nations amongst 
whom literature and the arts have most flourished, 
forbid the belief that they or their language were 
barbarian. 

Doubtless the Pelasgians were a civilized and peace- 
ful race, whilst the Hellenes were a warlike and con- 
quering people ; both sprang from one common origin ; 
and their languages were sufficiently similar, so that, 
when the races lived together as a conquering and sub- 
ject people, they were capable of amalgamation, and 
in the process of reconstruction formed the Greek 
language in the earliest state in which it was applied 
to the purposes of literature. 

Possibly the assertion of Herodotus is, after all, 
the true one, that the Athenians were not a Hellenic 

a Herod, ii. 51. b Ibid. vi. 137. c Ibid. v. 64. 

d Ibid. i. 57. e Ibid. i. 57. f Thuc. lib. i. 



ORIGIN OF GREEK ALPHABET. 13 

but a Pelasgian race. a The Dorians, we know, were 
Hellenians; and the opposition between the Dorian 
and Ionian mind and character leads us to expect that 
in the Ionian race are to be found the descendants of 
that marvellous people which Italy, as well as Greece, 
acknowledges for its founders. 

Such appears to have been the origin of the Greek 
nation and its great subdivisions, and such the sources 
from which its language was derived. But whilst the 
Greek language belongs to the Indo-European family, 
the alphabet is of Semitic origin. Tradition repre- 
sents Cadmus, a Phoenician, as having introduced 
an alphabet, of sixteen letters, into Greece, 5 and 

there are good reasons for believing that the ancient 

© © 

Greeks were accustomed to call the Semitic nations 
Phoenicians. The truth, which the mythical history 
symbolizes, was probably the following. 

The Phoenician, or Syro-Chaldean, cities of Tyre 
and Sidon were, in very early times, important 
commercial communities. It is probable that through 
them, principally, the trade between the East and 
West was carried on. The antiquity of our own 
sacred writings proves that the existence of a Semitic 
written literature was at least coeval with their com- 
merce ; and thus it was not long before the Greek 
merchants derived from the descendants of Shem, the 
signs which they used, and which they adapted to 
the representation of the sounds of their own native 
tongue. 

a Herod, viii. 44. b Ibid. v. 28. 



14 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The Semitic alphabet was doubtless at first pic- 
torial, and afterwards, in process of time, became 
phonetic. Even after it had undergone this im- 
provement, the ancient names of the things which 
the letters depicted still remained ; and although the 
form became gradually altered, some rude resem- 
blance to the original picture form can be still 
detected. For example tf, the first letter in the 
present Hebrew alphabet, was called Aleph, or ox; 
and in the character, and still more in the older 
Phoenician form *fc, the rude picture of an ox's head 
may be traced. So 1, Beth, signified a house; 2, 
Gimel, a camel; and so forth. The letter y, Ain, 
the eye, corresponds to the European vowel O ; and 
the oldest form in which it was written was 0, or O, 
as representing a rude resemblance to the human 
eye. Other instances of the pictorial character may 
be traced in some of the letters of the Hebrew and 
cognate alphabets. 

Tradition informs us that the Phoenician or 
Semitic alphabet, introduced into Greece by Cadmus, 
consisted of sixteen letters, and the grammarians 
asserted that these sixteen were a, (8, y, \ s, /, #, "k, p, 
v, o, #, g>, (T, r, y; a but the same philologer, whose 
authority has been already referred to, has unanswer- 
ably proved that this is impossible, and that the 
original letters must have been those which appear 
in the extant Hebrew alphabet, under the following 
names and symbols : — 

a Donaldson's New Cratyl. i. 5. 



ALPHABETS COMPARED. 



15 



Hebrew. 




Greek. 


N H 


first breathing, 


A. 


1 B } 




B. 


a g \ 


middle sounds (mediae), T. 


1 D j 




A. 


n h 


second breathing, 


E. 


") Bh 




P, digamma. 


n Gh 


■ aspirated sound, 


H. 


D Dh 




e. 


!? L 




A. 


D M 


- liquids, 


M. 


3 N 


N. 


D S 


the sibilant, 


I. 


v o 


third breathing, 


- O. 


S P ] 


- smooth sounds (teni 


n. 


p Q 


ies), 4>. 


n t 


l 


T. 



The following specimens of Greek, Phoenician, and 
Samaritan characters, will show the transition from 
the Semitic to the Greek a forms : — 



Hebrew. Samaritan. Phoenician. Greek. 



K 




* 


A. 


1 


3 




B. 


J 


1 




r. 


1 




Q 


A. 


n 


* 




E. 


i 




7 


P, digamma. 


T 








n 


^ 




H. 


to 






0. 


> 








3 




7 


K. 


b 




Z 


A. 


D 




*f 


M. 


: 




> 


N. 



a See Penny Cyclopaedia, art. Alphabet. 



16 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



Hebrew. 


Samaritan. 


Phoenician. 


Greek. 


D 






*•(») 


V 







0. 


2 






n. 


a 


3UU 




z. 


P 


V 




*. 


i 




<\ 


p. 


w 


<m 




2. 


n 


A 




T. 



From a mere inspection of these alphabets thus 
compared together, it is plain that the resemblance 
between the letters of the Semitic alphabets and the 
corresponding Greek characters is very great, due 
allowance being of course made for the fact that the 
Semitic nations wrote from right to left, and the 
Greek characters with which we are familiar were 
used at the time when the Greeks wrote as we do 
— from left to right. Hence the letters B, T, E, &c, 
are turned exactly the contrary way to their original 
Semitic types. 

In the earliest times, as may be proved from old 
inscriptions, the Greeks wrote precisely in the same 
direction as the Semitic nations, and afterwards they 
wrote alternately from right to left, and from left to 
right. This transition state of writing was designated 
by the characteristic term fiovargofyyihov, i.e., the way in 
which oxen plough. 

With respect to their sixteen original characters, 
and the other omitted letters of the present Greek 
alphabet, the following observations may be made. 

1. E H. Although this was first the common 
aspirate k 9 it afterwards became the vowel e. The 



GREEK ALPHABET. 17 

Greeks had originally, like the Latins, only one e — 
the introduction of the long e, as well as the long a, 
being due to later times. The earliest instances a of 
the Ci which are extant, are on some coins of Gelon, 
tyrant of Syracuse ; and therefore it must have been 
in use some time previous to the date of his death, 
B.C. 478 : and the H is also found in some very 
ancient coins of Rhegium. With respect, however, 
to the comparative antiquity of these two letters, 
there is every reason for supposing that the Ct was of 
later introduction than the H. Wordsworth b ob- 
served an inscription in the Grotto of the Nymphs, 
on Mount Hymettus, on the way from Athens to 
Sunium, in which H is used, but O does not occur. 
Neither of these letters, however, are found in Attic 
inscriptions earlier than B.C. 403. The a is evidently 
a double letter, artificially composed of two o's. 

"2. f *). This letter, from its being apparently made 
up of two Ps, was fancifully termed the digamma. 
Its power is w, or v. It retained its place in the 
numerical alphabet as the symbol of the figure 6, and 
is then generally written «/, and commonly called the 
stigma, from its resemblance to the character which 
represents gt. Although it has gone out of use in 
the written or spoken language, its presence may 
still be detected in those Latin words which have an 
affinity for Greek words, in which it originally oc- 
curred, e.g. ohog, vinum ; oizoc, view. In the same way 
the Koppa, which, like the p, is a combination of k 
a Payne Knight. b " Athens and Attica." 

VOL. I. C 



18 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and v, and the Sanpi "\ a combination of a and-zr, after 
they ceased to be letters, remained as the repre- 
sentatives of numbers. 

3. H n. When this character ceased to be used 
as an aspirate, it was divided into two parts, \ and, 4 
of which the first designated the aspirate ; the other 
was prefixed to unaspirated vowels in the cursive and 
more familiar form of ( f ) and (') ; the character was 
then used to represent the long e, and its place 
amongst the aspirates was supplied by X. 

4. K 3. When the Koppa was disused, this became 
its substitute. 

5. The Hebrew ? corresponds to the old Greek 
letter San, which enters into the composition of Sanpi 
"*), a numeral, but not, so far as we have any evidence, 
an alphabetic character. 

6. The only point which appears doubtful and 
difficult of adjustment in this theory is, whether the 
corresponds to 2, and w to H, or the reverse. The 
place which D occupies seems to indicate that its 
Greek correlative is H, since it stands in a similar 
position in the Greek alphabet ; and, moreover, the 
form of the Samaritan *** is precisely similar to the 
Greek 2. On the other hand, the whole theory 
of Donaldson, who adopts the contrary view, is so 
complete, and supported by such powerful arguments, 
as to render it almost impossible to propose any devi- 
ation. 

With regard to the sibilant letter generally, it 
may be observed that it may be classed with the 



GREEK ALPHABET. 19 

aspirates, instead of being, as grammarians have 
termed it, a letter of its own power (suce potesiatis). 
Experiment will prove that a very strong expiration 
has a tendency to produce a hissing sound. It is 
probably for this reason that, in Latin, the s is the 
representative of the aspirate in some words which 
have an affinity with aspirated words in Greek, e.g. 
in vg 9 sus, and S}jj 9 syha. 

It is a remarkable fact, which must not be passed 
over whilst speaking of the Greek alphabet, that, 
until the downfall of the Thirty Tyrants — although 
the new alphabet of twenty-four letters had been long 
in use — the laws of Solon were still written in the 
sixteen old Attic letters. This defect Archinus pro- 
posed to remedy, when it was determined that this 
code should be transcribed and set up to public view, 
on the partial restoration of the old constitution. 



c 2 



20 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER II. 

POETRY PRECEDES PROSE LITERATURE. FIRST DEVELOPMENTS OF GREEK 

POETRY RELIGIOUS. WORSHIP OF NATURE. GREEK CLIMATE. 

WORSHIP OF THE SUN-GOD. ANCIENT TRADITIONS. LINUS. — HYLAS. 

LITYERSES. ADONIS. BARDS. — TESTIMONY OF HOMER. ORPHEUS. 

EUMOLPUS. THAMYRIS. — MUS^US. CHRYSOTHEMIS. PHILAMMON. 

OLEN. 

The earliest species of literature is poetry. It is 
the natural outpouring of the heart, the language in 
which imagination and passion seek for utterance, 
whilst prose implies more reflection and logical exact- 
ness, and therefore an advanced state of intellectual 
power. 

This may at first appear a startling and paradoxical 
assertion. Men converse in prose, and therefore it 
might be thought that the first works which they 
intended to outlive them would have taken the most 
natural form, and not have been bound by the fetters 
of verse. But the histories of all nations prove the 
contrary, and the following brief considerations will 
account for the phenomenon. The hearers, whether 
engaged in a private and social, or a public and 
religious ceremony, whether at the banquet or the 
altar, would demand a species of composition adapted 
for a musical accompaniment. Nor would metrical 



EARLY GREEK POETRY RELIGIOUS. 21 

arrangement constitute a practical difficulty to the 
composer. The aid which metre is to the memory, 
which then had not the artificial help of writing, far 
surpassed the inconvenience arising from the trammels 
of verse. It must be remembered, also, that the 
great variety of position which the words in ancient 
languages are permitted to assume, greatly diminished 
the difficulty of versification. This advantage is 
denied by the more rigid rules which regulate the 
syntactical order of modern languages. 

The first developments of Greek poetry were im- 
mediately connected with religion ; and that worship, 
the enthusiastic devotion of which was embodied in 
poetry, was the worship of Nature. The Greek 
inhabited a land well suited to foster and nurture the 
fancy and imagination. His was a country of varied 
and picturesque beauty ; a land of the mountain and 
the flood. Its shores were indented by numerous 
;tiful bays and inlets, and almost in every part 
washed by the sea. which naturally suggests to the 
mind images sometimes of the calmest beauty, some- 
times of the grandest sublimity. The climate was as 
beautiful as the country. The ancient poets con- 
stantly speak of its transparency. A modern scholar 
and traveller ■ thus writes of the sky and atmosphere 
of Greece. 

• ; It is impossible to describe the varied tints which 
dye the marbles of Hy menus, which bathe the islands 
of the iEgean, and fringe the crests of the mountains. 

1 Ampere. 



22 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

So magnificent are these effects of light, that even 
Homer has not attempted to paint a sunrise or a sun- 
set. He has substituted metaphor for details, which 
his pencil could not trace. He has spoken to us of 
the rosy fingers of Aurora, to distract our attention and 
make us forget that he has never described Aurora 
herself." 

" Nor does the light of the sun in Greece alone 
defy description ; the night has its own peculiar 
brilliance. The stars shine like fire. The rays of 
the moon are not of silver, as in the cold North. 
The attributes of Phoebe are similar to those of her 
brother ; the poets with truth encircle her brows with 
a crown of gold." 

This bright and cheerful climate was supposed by 
the ancients to exert an influence over the mental 
powers, and Cicero attributes the clearness of Attic 
wit to that of the Attic atmosphere. 

The Greek mythology, therefore, connected the 
legends which tradition handed down, with the local 
scenery of their father-land ; it peopled every river, 
and fountain, and hill, with deities and nymphs, and 
other supernatural beings. Every scene upon which 
the eye of the Greek rested, was, in his imagination, 
haunted by mysterious essences ; and thus even the 
perishable and transitory things of this world were 
stamped, as it were, with immortality. Hence the 
first poems — the existence of which is made known 
to us by tradition — were solemn hymns, addressed 



WORSHIP OF THE SUN-GOD. '23 

as acts of worship and adoration to these deified 
phenomena of nature. 

In its infancy, poetry realized the definition of 
Strabo a — r H van/ruci rasa vfLrtjruuj, all poetry should 
ist of hymns of praise. 

These effusions, though unwritten, were neverthe- 
less, to that early age, its literature. They were 
rhythmical poetical compositions, delighting the ear 
and charming the intellect, long before the Greek 
nation became acquainted either with the letters of 
the alphabet or the art of writing. 

The deity who represented the Sun-god — the giver 

of life and heat, the cause of plenty and fertility — 

was the earliest object of poetical worship. When 

the shortest days of winter were just passing away, 

hymns of joy and welcome were sung in his honour, 

in token that the days were lengthening, and the 

isons of spring and summer approaching. 

Again, a little later, the same god, under the name 

of Apollo, was celebrated in the hymn Ie Paean 

,V Yl r xir t ov), b and the approach of the vernal equinox, 

when nature began to look gay and smiling, was 

,-d with spring pseans (uaewoi ^ra/avsc). 

Such were the hymn-, the burden of which was 
distinguished by iq, the cry of joy ; but there were 
others distinguished by the burden cu Afe (alas ! 
Linus) the subject of which was sad and melancholy. 

Strabo, x. p. 468. b Hymn to Apollo, 21. 

- e . Mailers History of Greek Literature. 

iEsch. A_: .._. . _ 



24 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

As the songs of joy were sung in honour of reviving 
nature, so these laments symbolized the withering 
and perishing of nature's life and vigour/ Tradition 
represented Linus as a beautiful boy, whom matrons 
and maidens bewailed. Legends told that he was 
brought up in infancy with the lambs, and torn to 
pieces by dogs. The lamentation for his untimely fate 
was sung to an accompaniment on the harp, in a low 
and solemn chant. 

UdvTEg fikv Bprjvoiicrip iv EiXaTrivaiq re \opolg rs, 

' ' Apyo/iXEvoL Se Atvov ical Xriyovreg koXeovgi. — Hes. Fragm. 

Where dance and feast are sparkling gay, 
His is the melancholy lay ; 
Ere they begin and when they close 
They call on Linus' name, they tell of Linus' woes. 

Anstice. 

The Egyptians marked the period of the greatest 
heat by the sign Thoth, or the watch-dog, as giving 
warning of the rising of the Nile, and hence those 
days were called the days of Thoth, or the dog-days ; 
and the constellation, afterwards called Sirius by the 
Greeks, which rose heliacally at that period, was 
called the dog-star. At this period of the year, when 
the raging heat of summer parches up the exhausted 
powers of nature, and the spring in which the lambs 
sport over the green meadows is no more, the shep- 
herds sang the lament of Linus, and hence the legend 
derived its origin. In Asia Minor there were many 
dirges embodying similar stories. The lament for 

a See Muller's Dorians, xi. 12. 



SONGS OF SORROW AND JOY. 25 

Hylas, borne away by the nymphs of the Mysian 
fountains; the Sgjjvog of the Mariandyni for the 
beautiful Bormus, whose fate was the same as that 
of Hylas ; the song of Lityerses, in Phrygia ; and, 
lastly, that of Adonis, which was sung throughout 
the coasts of the Mediterranean. At the Egyptian 
Pelusium, also, a dirge was sung in honour of Maneros, 
an Egyptian prince, cut off in early youth, which 
Herodotus a considers as identical with that of Linus. 
But the bard and the song were present not only at 
all seasons of public rejoicing or mourning, but on 
those occasions in private life which are closely con- 
nected with religion, and which call up ideas of a 
religious nature. At marriages the song of joy was 
as customary as at the more solemn rites and cere- 
monies relating to the gods. In the following passage 
Homer describes a nuptial procession accompanied by 
a hymeneal song : — 

Two splendid cities also there he formed, 

Such as men build. In one were to be seen 

Rites matrimonial solemnized with pomp 

Of sumptuous banquets ; from their chambers forth 

Leading the brides they ushered them along 

With torches through the streets, and sweet was heard 

The voice around of hymeneal song. 

Here striplings danced in circles to the sound 

Of pipe and harp. 

II. xviii. 490 (Cowper). 

And at funerals hired singers led the dirge or 
coronach for the dead, and others followed them with 

a Herod, ii. 79. 



26 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

an accompaniment of wailing. At the funeral of 
Achilles the Muses are the leaders (g?ag%o/) a and 
the Nereids accompany their strains. 

Choral dances too, and the music of the harp 
accompanied these songs, but the dance was poetical 
or imitative ; it did not merely consist of graceful 
gestures or rhythmical movements, but the action 
described by the song was dramatically represented 
by the dancer ; it resembled, indeed, in some degree 
the ballet-dancing of modern times. The cheerful 
festive scene depicted on the shield of Achilles, in the 
" Iliad," and the entertainment at the court of Me- 
nelaus, in the " Odyssey," well illustrate the nature 
of this triple union of music, pantomime, and poetry. 

They with well-tutored step now nimbly ran 
The circle, swift, as when, before his wheel 
Seated, the potter twirls it with both hands 
For trial of its speed, now crossing quick 
They passed at once into each other's place. 
On either side spectators numerous stood 
Delighted; and two tumblers rolled themselves 
Between the dancers, singing as they rolled. 

II. xviii. 599 (Cowper). 
A sacred bard sang sweetly to his harp, 
While in the midst two dancers smote the ground 
With measured steps, responsive to his song. 

Od. iv. 18 (Cowper). 

If, then, the earliest poetry was either consecrated 
to the service of the gods, or designed to sympathize 
with the joys and sorrows of domestic life, it is clear 
what the engrossing subjects of these strains would 

3 Od. xxiv. 59. 



EARLY BARDS AND MINSTRELS. 27 

be. They must have been the praises of the gods, 
the melancholy legends interwoven with the popular 
mythology, the exploits of warriors and heroes, the 
joys of love and wine. 

The deities with whose worship these plaintive 
strains and joyful songs were especially connected, 
were Apollo, Demeter, Dionysus, and Cybele. 

Little as we know of the early minstrels or bards, 
it is certain that, as the composers of hymns and the 
only depositaries of family legends, they occupied 
a high place in the respect and veneration of the 
people. The bard was gifted not only with poetic 
inspiration, but with the knowledge of futurity, and 
therefore he was the prophet and the seer, and both 
offices were signified by one common name. As their 
leader in common worship and the keeper of their 
traditions, he was also, as it were, the priest, the 
historian, the instructor of the laity. Not only did 
he minister to their amusement, but his position was 
also one of considerable influence and authority. Fre- 
quently he was the political adviser of the prince, 
who confided to him the most delicate duties. Aga- 
memnon, for example, when he took the command 
of the Trojan expedition, confided to a minstrel bard 
his young and then virtuous wife, Clytemnestra. 

The earliest of these bards and composers of hymns, 

whose names have come down to us, are Orpheus, 

Eumolpus, Thamyris, Musseus, Chrysothemis, Phi- 

lammon, Olen, and some others. a Philammon is said 

a Matthise, Hist, of Liter, part i. sect. 2. 



28 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

to have been a Delphian, Chrysothemis a Cretan, 
Olen a Lycian, and the compositions of all are re- 
ported to have referred to the worship of Apollo. 
Herodotus a tells us that the hymns of Olen were 
sung in honour of Apollo, at Delos. The other bards 
were, in Greek tradition, commonly called Thracians. 
The probability is, that they were not natives of 
Thrace Proper, but of Pieria, the district situated 
between Macedonia, Thessaly, and Mount Olympus. 
These Pierians had also southern settlements near 
Mount Helicon, in Boeotia ; and we learn from Hero- 
dotus, 15 that Xerxes, in his Thracian expedition, found 
fortresses belonging to them in Thrace itself. It was 
to these districts, inhabited by these Pierian bards, 
that the localities and names attributed to the Muses 
owe their origin. Parnassus, Helicon, Pimpla, Libe- 
thra, Hippocrene, thus became consecrated as the 
favourite haunts of the goddesses of song. 

The poets, or rather minstrels, whose names have 
been mentioned, belong so entirely to the age of 
fable, that the legends in which their history is 
incorporated, must be sought for in the Greek my- 
thology. Orpheus, the power of whose lyre over all 
animate and inanimate nature, is celebrated through- 
out the writings of the ancient poets, was probably 
the author of religious poetry. The worship which 
he celebrated was that of Dionysus/ not the jovial 
wine-god, but one dwelling in the darkness of the 
lower world. The ceremonies of it were of a mys- 
a Herod, iv. 35. b Ibid. vii. 112. c Ibid. ii. 81. 



THE ORPHIC WORSHIP. 29 

terious nature, like those of Eleusis, and those who 
took part in them, were admitted by solemn rites of 
initiation. Hence, probably, arose the legend of his 
descent to Hades in search of his beloved Eurydice. 
The marked contrast between the solemn and pure 
worship of this Dionysus Zagreus, and the wild orgies 
of the wine-god, may have exposed him to the fierce 
enmity of a rival priesthood, and given rise to the 
legend of his death at the hands of the Thracian 
bacchanals. The Orphic worship was of a pure and 
self-denying character, its legends spoke of the soul's 
immortality, its chief priests at Athens were the noble 
family of the Lyconicke, who professed to be the 
keepers of its traditions. The literature which bears 
the name of this fabulous poet was believed by some 
to be the genuine productions of the Pre-Homeric 
age, but has now been proved to consist partly of 
forgeries, partly of genuine fragments belonging to 
a later period. 

Eumolpus doubtless ow 7 es his existence to family 
vanity. He is the mythical patriarch of the Eumol- 
pidse, a noble Athenian family, who were the high 
priests of the Eleusinian mysteries. These, as their 
name implies (beautiful singers), claimed to be de- 
scended from a line of holy bards, at the head of 
which they placed this mythical poet. Thamyris was 
said to have been the son of Philammon, who, in his 
turn, boasted of Apollo as his father. Musaeus was 
the reputed son of Orpheus, who, by birth a Thracian, 
migrated to Athens. His name typifies the first rise 



30 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of poetry, the earliest devotion paid to the Muses in 
the Grecian capital. Chrysothemis, if he existed at 
all, was probably one of the founders of the Apol- 
linarian worship, as the legend makes him the son 
of a Cretan priest of that deity. 

Olen is represented by the legend, not as a Greek, 
but a Lycian, or, as some say, a Hyperborean. In 
either case, then, he typifies the foreign origin of the 
worship of Apollo, and in the former, that Lycian, or 
Lycean, worship alluded to in the most common of 
all the epithets attributed to him by the poets. 
Ancient art, in this case, as in many others, illustrates 
literature. 3 Mure states, from his own observation, 
that the Lycian sculptures, of which England now 
possesses such valuable specimens, are precisely similar 
to those found at Mycenae in the present day. Hence 
confirmation is given to the Homeric legend of an 
intercourse between Lycia and Argolis in mythical 
times, and to the popular tradition that the sculpture 
at Mycenae, which bears obvious reference to the 
rites of Apollo, were the works of Lycian artists, 
a Hist, of Greek Literature, viii. 56. 



NO LITERATURE BEFORE HOMER. ',U 



CHAPTER III. 

XO ACTUAL LITERATURE BEFORE HOMER. HIS BIETH-PLACE, — DIF- 
FERENT TRADITIONS RECONCILED. ARGUMENT IN EATOUR OF 

SMYRNA. — DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE WHETHER HE WAS AN IONIAN 

OR AN J20LIAN. LIFE BY HERODOTUS AND SUIDAS. — IMPORTANCE 

OF THIS LEGENDARY BIOGRAPHY. THE CHORIZONTES, OR SEPA- 
RATORS. THEIR DOCTRINES REVIEWED. PAYNE KNIGHT. 

NITZSCH. 

Although, in the earliest ages, the religious aspi- 
rations of man sought and found utterance in song, 
we cannot affirm the actual existence of Greek poetic 
literature until the time of Homer. The bards, his 
predecessors, may have done much for the formation 
of a polished and harmonious language, they may 
have handed down, from age to age, a store of heroic 
legends to interest, wise sayings to instruct, and beau- 
tiful imagery to delight their hearers ; but it is to the 
author of the Homeric poems that we are indebted 
for the first blending together all those parts in one 
harmonious whole. These poems present the first 
instance of a perfect systematic plot, a unity of de- 
sign, steadily keeping one end in view, and perse- 
vering until it is attained, a plot carried out by cha- 
racters, whose consistency is maintained to the con- 
clusion of the poem. Such is that wonderful and 



32 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

almost superhuman work the epic poem, of which 

there are but few in the whole circle of the world's 

literature, and of which the authors stood out in 

bold relief as the exceptions to the rest of their kind. 

Homer, Virgil, Dante, Tasso, Milton, the author of 

the " Cid," are poets whose existence can scarcely be 

expected, except at intervals of centuries. 

Seven cities contended for the honour of being 

the birth-place of Homer. 

Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athenae, 
Orbis de patria certat, Homere, tua. 

K. O. Muller 3 supposes that there is by no means 
such discrepancy in these traditions as at first sight 
appears. Athens claimed the honour as pretending 
to be the mother city of Smyrna. b In Chios lived a 
society called Homeridse. They were probably, judg- 
ing from the sense in which the word is used in Plato, 
admirers and imitators of Homer, but the patronymic 
form of the word caused them to be considered as his 
descendants, and hence tradition represented Homer 

as — 

The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle. 

Again, Ephesus was connected with Smyrna, as 
having sent thither the first band of colonists; and 
these, when driven out by an invading party of 
JEolians, sought and obtained refuge at Colophon. 
Thus Smyrna, after all, appears to be the stem from 
which branch forth the majority of the seven claims. 

a Literature of Greece, chap. v. 

b Bekker's Anecdota, vol. ii. p. 768. 



homer's birth>place. 33 

The prevailing opinion among the ancients was that 
he was a Smyrnean ; his epithet, Melesigenes, being 
derived from the river Meles, in the neighbourhood 
of Smyrna. Upon the whole, notwithstanding it has 
been argued that he was a European, and by Briant 
that he was a native of Ithaca, all his local descrip- 
tions, his feelings and prejudices, displayed in his 
works, are in favour of the supposition that he 
was an Asiatic, and probably an Ionian. 3 His accurate 
and graphic descriptions of the Asiatic coast of the 
jEgean, and the scenery of the adjacent islands, are 
those of one long and familiarly acquainted with them. 
His statement that the west wind blows the waves in 
shore, is the language of one accustomed to the coast 
of the Levant. 

" The swans of Cayster — the Asian meadows — 
and other scenes in Ionia, are described with the 
faithfulness and feeling of one who connected them 
with his earliest recollections." 5 

He shows the greatest reverence for the Ionian 
theology. Poseidon is recognised by him as the 
deity of the Ionian league. Ajax is represented as 
an Attic (and therefore an Ionic) hero, instead of 
being described, according to the Dorian usage, as of 
the same family with Achilles. 

The Homerides, his principal admirers, inhabited 
Chios, which was situated off the Ionian coast ; and 
the Cyclic poets, who, in their feeble imitations, pro- 

a See Plato, De Legg. iii. p. 680. 
b Miiller, c. v. c Ibid. c. v. 

VOL. I. D 



34 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

longed his strain, were likewise Ionians. With the 
exception of one passage (II. &', 40) he has avoided 
any allusion to the Dorian conquest of the Pelopon- 
nesus, 3 for the Dorians were the enemies of the Ionian 
race; and, lastly, the only Heraclid chieftain in the 
" Iliad " is Tlepolemus, who was driven out by his 
brother, and joined the JEolians. The probability 
that Homer was an Asiatic Greek, almost amounts 
to a certainty. The only doubt is whether he was 
an Ionian or iEolian ; and in support of the belief 
that he was an iEolian, it may be asserted that in his 
dialect there is as much iEolic as Ionic Greek ; that 
the Trojan war is an iEolian tradition ; and that the 
most circumstantial accounts of his life are evidently 
based upon iEolian legends. 

With respect to the era in which he lived, Mitford 5 
places it previous to the Dorian conquest in B.C. 1104; 
Clinton subsequently to that event, in B.C. 962 — 927 ; 
the Arundel Marbles, in B.C. 907. But, according 
to Herodotus, he flourished about four hundred years 
before his time. This date is approved by Heyne, 
and is supported by the opinion generally prevalent in 
ancient times. Besides these considerations, it will 
be seen to agree best with the theory of Homer's 
personality ; and for those who deny this, to fix any 
definite period for the composition of the poems is 
manifestly groundless and visionary. 

There are many lives of Homer, all of which, what- 

a See Clinton, vol. i., Appendix. b Mitford, i. 140. 

c Herod. Eut. 53. 



LIFE OF HOMER. 35 

ever truth is mixed up with them, derive their 
materials from early legendary history. Two of these 
are attributed to Plutarch, and one — by far the most 
circumstantial — is ascribed to Herodotus. The great 
historian, as is evident from passages in his work, a 
took great pains to collect information respecting the 
divine poet, and therefore the following biography 
has been compiled from his, with the addition of a 
few traditions recorded by Suidas, in his short com- 
pilation. b The legend followed by Herodotus is 
evidently of JEolian origin. 

Melanopus, a Magnesian, was one of the early 
settlers in the iEolian town of Cyme. At his death, 
he left his daughter, Critheis, to the guardianship of 
Cleanax. He, finding that she was pregnant, con- 
signed her to the care of Ismenias, who was one of 
the founders of Smyrna. On the banks of the Meles 
she gave birth to a son, who was therefore named 
Melesigenes ; and afterwards, because he was given as 
an hostage to the Colophonians, he was surnamed 
ofiqgog (Homer). The supposed date of his birth, ac- 
cording to Herodotus, was four hundred years before 
his own time. 

In very early youth he exhibited considerable 
talent, and a Leucadian merchant, named Mentes 
— whose name the poet has handed down to pos- 
terity in the "Odyssey" — struck with his genius, 
took him with him to sea. On this occasion he 
visited Ithaca, and there collected the materials for 

* Herod, lib. ii. and iv. b Suidas s. v. 

d 2 



36 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the " Odyssey." Thence he went to Colophon, where 
he became blind — a tradition doubtless derived from 
his name, Homer, which, according to another ety- 
mology, signified the blind man (6 ^ 6g£v). Later 
researches 3 have discovered that the name, Homer, 
was first given to the author of the " Iliad " and 
" Odyssey," by Xenophanes of Colophon. Smyrna, 
Cyme, Phocsea, Chios, successively became the place 
of his abode. At one period of his wanderings he 
became tutor to the sons of a very wealthy man 
named Chiros, and at that time composed his comic 
poems. Another account says that he wrote them in 
order to amuse the children of the master of the 
shepherd, Glaucus. The " Iliad " and " Odyssey " 
were composed during the period of his residence at 
Chios. He married Aresiphane, a Chian, who bore 
him one daughter and two sons, named Erephon and 
Theolaus. 

On his way to Greece he landed sick on the 
island of Irus. Some fishermen's boys, who were 
engaged in an employment, not of a very cleanly 
kind, asked him the ridle — 

"Aaa eXofxsy, Xiirofiea&a, a d' ovk eXofxev, <f>ep6 fisada. 

" What we caught we left, what we could not catch we carried 
with us." 

On this Suidas gravely remarks that he did not die of 
vexation, because he could not guess the riddle, but 
of the disease under which he laboured when he 
landed. He lived to a good old age, and was buried 

a Welcker, Ep. Cycl., p. 186. 



MORALITY OF HOMERIC POEMS. 37 

in the island. The inhabitants inscribed on his tomb 
the following elegy — 

"Ev0a£e rrjv upav K£(f>aX^v /carci yaia KaXvirrti, 
'Av^owv f]poju)v KoajxrjTopa $eiov"0/ur)pov. 

" Here his sacred head in Earth's dark bosom reposes, 
Homer the poet divine who heroes adorns with his praises." 

Dioscorides asserts that Homer's great object was to 
enforce upon the young the duty of temperance, and 
quotes many passages from his poems, in which he 
describes regal banquets, marriage-feasts, and public 
entertainments as consisting of the simplest fare. 
Suidas bears testimony to the purity of his life, and 
mentions a tradition to the effect that his reputed 
blindness typified his freedom from the power of 
desire which holds sway through the eyes. And no 
one can read the poems of Homer without being 
struck with one noble quality which distinguishes 
him not only amongst heathen but even amongst 
Christian poets, namely, that there is scarcely a 
passage or a thought throughout them which would 
give offence to the purest and most delicate mind. 
Horace wisely remarks, in his epistle to Lollius, 3 that 
the contrast between virtue and vice is more in- 
structively painted in the Homeric poems than in the 
lectures of philosophers. The terrible evils of un- 
governed passions — the prevailing sins of heroic 
natures — are put forward as a stern moral lesson 
in the "Iliad," whilst the self-indulgent luxury and 
licentious riot of the suitors, the patience and resist- 
a Horace, Epistles, i. 2. 



38 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ance to temptation displayed by Ulysses, enforce the 
same moral lessons in the " Odyssey." 

Such, then, in its general features, is the legendary 
biography of Homer. How much of truth is con- 
tained in it cannot of course be determined. Pro- 
bably, as in most other cases, there is a groundwork 
of truth on which has been built up the superstructure 
of fable. But even a life, the principal part of which 
rests on no better authority than popular tradition, 
becomes, in the case of Homer, exceedingly valuable. 
It proves that the testimony of an age perhaps not 
far distant from the period at which the Homeric 
poems were written, believed in the personal existence 
of their author ; a belief which, as is well-known, has 
been attacked in later times with all the ingenuity of 
argument and the resources of learning. It is necessary, 
therefore, to a certain extent, to enter upon the much- 
vexed question of the origin of the Homeric poems. 

No doubt was ever entertained by the ancients 
respecting the personality of Homer. Pindar, a Plato, b 
Aristotle, and others, all assumed this fact ; nor did 
they even doubt that the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" 
were the work of one mind. 

The genuineness of the lesser Homeric poems was 

denied by Herodotus ; d and all works bearing his 

name, except the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," were 

rejected by Aristotle; 6 but the authorship of these 

remained undoubted. 

a Nem. viii. 29. b Plato, Repub. iii. iv. vii. 

c Nic. Ethics, ix. 10. d Herod, ii- 117 ; iv. 117. 

e Arist. Poet. 



DOCTRINE OF THE SEPARATORS. 39 

The difference between these two poems did not 
escape the critical notice of the ancients, but it never 
appeared to them so great as to demand such an 
hypothesis in order to account for it, as the supposing 
that the j proceeded from two authors. The one was 
compared to the sun in its noon-day splendour; the 
other to that luminary when it sets, shorn of its 
beams: 3 but they would as readily have doubted the 
identity of the mid-day and evening sun as that of 
their greatest bard. Longinus even sees so intimate 
a connexion between the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey," 
that he considers the latter as the ImKoyog, or proper 
conclusion, of the former poem, a relation which 
implies such an unity of design as marks the work 
of a single author. 

This, however, was the side on which the ancient 
creed was first assailed. Some of the Alexandrian 
grammarians, of no great reputation, asserted, on 
account of some slight and not unnatural inconsis- 
tencies in language and mythology, that the " Iliad " 
and " Odyssey " belonged to different ages, and were 
the works of different authors ; they were hence 
called 01 xagityvrsg, or the separators. They did not, 
however, succeed in overthrowing the popular belief. 
Their theory was looked upon as an ingenious paradox ; 
it gradually died away, and was forgotten. Nor can 
it be a matter of astonishment that their speculations 
met with so little support, to those who know, from 
experience, how different are the works of the same 

a Longinus. 



40 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

poets at different periods of their lives, and who know 
as a fact that the "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise 
Regained" are the works of one and the same Milton. 
The doctrine of the Chorizontes was revived by Payne 
Knight, who attempted to show inexplicable discrep- 
ancies between events related in the two poems. 
Nitzsch defended the theory on the ground that there 
was a marked difference between the theology of the 
" Iliad " and " Odyssey ;" but as he asserts that the 
attributes of deity, in the latter poem, are far holier 
and purer, the difference may be accounted for by 
supposing that as the poet advanced in years his 
ideas respecting the divine nature reached a higher 
standard. 



THEORY OF HEDELIN AND PERRAULT. 41 



CHAPTER IV. 

THEORY OF HEDELIN AND PERRAULT. HEYNE. — BEXTLEy's SEQUEL, 

WOOD'S ESSAY ON HOMER. WOLF'S PROLEGOMENA. THE GROUNDS 

OF WOLF*S THEORY. OBSERVATIONS OF NITZSCH IN OPPOSITION TO 

WOLF'S ARGUMENTS. HOW FAR HE AGREES WITH HIS OPPONENT. 

ARGUMENT FROM THE STATE OF THE LANGUAGE. — POWER OF 

MEMORY. THE QUESTION CAN ONLY BE DECIDED BY INTERNAL EYI- 

DENCE. — WOLF DENIES THE POETICAL UNITY OF THE POEMS. INTER- 
POLATIONS AND ALTERATIONS HIGHLY PROBABLE. THE MATERIALS 

OF THE POEMS. ANCLENT LAYS. — OBJECTION TO HEYNE's HYPO- 
THESIS. — LACHMANX's HYPOTHESIS. 

Scepticism went no further than this attempt to 
deny that the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey " were the 
works of the same author, until the end of the seven- 
teenth century. At that time two French critics, 
Hedelin and Perrault, asserted that the Homeric 
poems were compilations of various lays, the works 
of different poets, all having the same subject, namely, 
the Trojan war. This theory was adopted by the 
learned Heyne, who put it into a more scholar-like 
form, and supported it with his wonted learning and 
ingenuity. Still, however, the principal argument of 
any value on which it rests for confirmation is, that so 
long a poem, composed previous to the invention of the 
art of writing, could scarcely have been the work of one 



42 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

mind. In the early part of the eighteenth century, 
Bentley a proposed a new solution of the difficulty. 
He assumed that, although these poems were the 
work of one author, yet still, that he wrote a sequel 
or series of songs to sing at festivals, as was the 
custom with the bards of the heroic age ; and he 
accounted for the difference between the stirring, 
warlike tone of the "Iliad," and the quiet, peaceful 
scenes of the " Odyssey," by saying, that the former 
was composed for men, the latter for women. He 
supposed that these lays or songs were transmitted 
from generation to generation, thus separate from 
each other, and that they were not collected together 
until after an interval of five hundred years. 

In 1770, Wood published an essay on the original 
genius of Homer, in which he proposed the question, 
whether the Homeric poems were originally written ? 
This suggested to Wolf the thorough and complete 
investigation of the subject, and in 1795 the "Pro- 
legomena," or preface to Homer, appeared, the ob- 
ject of which was to prove, that the " Iliad " and 
" Odyssey " were a collection of separate lays, ar- 
ranged and put together for the first time during the 
tyranny and by the order of Pisistratus. The grounds 
on which Wolf rested his theory were (1), that the 
art of writing was not sufficiently advanced, or writing 
materials sufficiently convenient, to allow of the be- 
lief that the Homeric poems were written ; and (2), 
that, therefore, as they must have been orally recited, 
a " Letter to N. N. by Phileleuth." 



GROUNDS OF WOLF'S THEORY. 43 

it is not probable that a poem would have been com- 
posed longer than could have been recited on a single 
occasion. The premisses from which he deduces his 
first argument are, (a) that, although the Ionians used 
skins of sheep and goats a for writing on, as early as 
the first Olympiad, B.C. 776, the Greeks could not 
have had materials suitable for the transcription of 
long poems until the time of Amasis, who reigned 
between B.C. 570 and B.C. 525 ; (b) that the laws of 
Zaleucus were the earliest documents committed to 
writing, and that their probable date is the year B.C. 
664. (c) A statement made by Josephus, b that Homer 
did not leave his poems in writing, but that they were 
handed down from memory in songs, and afterwards 
put together and arranged. He confesses, indeed, 
that his arguments do not go so far as to prove that 
the art of writing was totally unknown at so early a 
period as that in which the Homeric poems were 
composed, but only that it could not possibly have 
been applied to literary productions. He considers 
that his view derives support from the internal evi- 
dence of the poems themselves, for from two passages 
in the " Iliad," and one in the " Odyssey," he draws 
the same conclusion. The first of these is in the 
seventh " Iliad : "— 

Throughout all the host, 
To every chief and potentate of Greece, 
From right to left, the herald bore the lot 
By all disowned ; but when at length he reached 

a Herod, v. 58. b Apion, i. 2. 



44 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The inscriber of the lot, who cast it in, 
Illustrious Ajax, in his open palm 
The herald placed it, standing by his side ; 
He conscious with heroic joy, the lot 
Cast at his foot, and thus exclaimed aloud. 

II. vii. 183 (Cowper). 

Here he conjectures, that if the mark had been 
written characters, the herald would himself have 
decyphered it. (2) In the following passage : — 

Him therefore he dismissed 
To Lycia, charged with tales of dire import, 
Written in tablets, which he bade him show, 
That he might perish, to Anteia's sire. 

II. vi. 168 (Cowper). 

He asserts that the e^urcc kwygci were not words, 
but a species of picture-writing. (3) Lastly, from the 
" Odyssey," viii. 163, he infers that the captain re- 
members the contents of the ship, instead of having 
an inventory of it, and, therefore, assumes that the 
art of writing could not possibly have been in use 
at that time. 

Wolfs great opponent, G. W. Nitzsch, has denied 
that there is any weight in these arguments. He 
asserts not only that the use of wooden tablets and 
hides was introduced by the Phoenicians into Ionia 
as early as the first Olympiad, but that even papyrus 
was used long before the reign of Amasis ; that even 
the laws of Lycurgus were not orally transmitted, 
although they preceded those of Zaleucus ; and that 
the passage quoted from Josephus, originated in his 
misunderstanding the sentiments of the grammarians 



WOLF, NITZSCH, RITSCHL. 45 

on this point, who attributed the various readings of 
Homer to the rhapsodists. But although, according 
to his theory, writing was in general use as early as 
the first Olympiad, it does not affect the question, 
whether the Homeric poems were originally written, 
unless the Homeric age is supposed to have been 
nearly a century later than that fixed by the testimony 
of antiquity. 

It is remarkable, however, that these two great 
opponents approach near to one another's views ; for 
Wolf, after all, admits that the art of writing was 
known in Ionia and Magna Grsecia in the seventh 
and eight centuries B.C., and was used by Archilochus, 
Alcman, Pisander, and others, as early as the first 
Olympiad ; and Nitzsch asserts that Homer probably 
flourished not much before the age of Lycurgus, as 
determined by Thucydides, and that if he lived earlier 
(which it is almost certain that he did), it is impos- 
sible to maintain that his poems were written. 

With respect to the materials out of which the 
(i Iliad " and " Odyssey n were compiled, Nitzsch, as 
well as another German critic (Ritschl), contended 
that the author was indebted to earlier bards, that his 
taste selected legends from a vast number of tradi- 
tional epics, and his genius combined them into one 
whole. These were then handed down, orally, by such 
poets as the Homeridae, and having become, by lapse 
of time, separated and dispersed, though not for- 
gotten, were again collected and arranged by Pisi- 
stratus. 



46 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The most satisfactory method, however, of arriving 
at a probable solution of this difficult question is, a 
critical examination of the language in which the 
Homeric poems themselves are written ; and the 
opinion which is every day gaining more supporters 
amongst scholars, is that, according to the known laws 
which regulate the progress and formation of lan- 
guage, the advanced state of the dialect, and the per- 
fection of the metre, unanswerably prove that the 
poems must have been sung or recited long before 
they were committed to writing. Porson, for ex- 
ample, observed, that when the poems were com- 
posed the digamma must have been pronounced, and 
yet no trace of it is discovered in any manuscript, 
however ancient. It is also plain that the slight dif- 
ference between the language of Homer and later 
Greek, when compared with the rapid changes ob- 
servable in other languages, presents a philological 
anomaly very difficult of explanation, unless on the 
hypothesis that the poems were subjected to much 
revision, and adaptation to the language of a more 
advanced period of literature. 

But although it is impossible to avoid making this 
admission, further considerations and an examination 
of Wolfs second position will show that it is of no 
importance towards settling the question at issue, 
but that it must be decided by the internal evidence 
of the poems themselves, and by that alone. 

Accustomed as we are to all that assistance to 
literary composition which the art of writing supplies, 



NATURAL POWERS OF MEMORY. 47 

and, what is still more important, to the substitute 
for memory itself, which the power of committing 
our thoughts to paper furnishes, it is scarcely possible 
to form any idea of the natural powers of the memory 
when obliged to depend upon its own resources. We 
are, indeed, acquainted practically with the aid which 
metre and rhythm furnish; and the importance of 
this aid was so appreciated by the ancient Greeks, 
that they symbolized it in the belief that the Muses 
were daughters of Mnemosyne. It is not, therefore, 
so impossible a thing as it may at first sight appear, 
to conceive a poem of many thousand lines composed 
and arranged as a perfect whole, by an effort of 
memory, and then so perfectly retained in the mind 
as to be capable of recitation. Instances are not 
unknown of the wonderful power of memory when 
it is compelled to exert itself. Plutarch mentions 
the astonishing memories which the Greeks possessed. 
It is said also, that in modern times, the rude Calmucks 
have a national epic of three hundred and sixty cantos 
each fully as long as a book of the " Iliad," and 
that their bards are in the habit of reciting twenty 
at one time. 

Nor is it difficult to conceive that occasions of 
festivity might occur, in which the fervid imagination 
of the Greeks would listen with unwearied rapture 
to the recitation of the whole "Iliad 1 ' within the 
space of a few days. " If," says K. O. Miiller, a " the 
Athenians could at one festival hear in succession 
• Literature of Greece, p. 62. 



48 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

nine tragedies, three satiric dramas, and as many 
comedies, without ever thinking that it might be 
better to distribute this enjoyment over the whole 
year, why should not the Greeks of earlier times have 
been able to listen to the ' Iliad ' and ' Odyssey,' 
and perhaps other poems at the same festival?" Such 
occasions we know did occur at the Panionian festival, 51 
where poetical contests of the bards were held; at 
Sicyon, b during the contests of the rhapsodists in the 
time of Clisthenes ; and also in many other parts 
of Greece. 

Besides it is not inconsistent with the theory, that 
each of these poems was composed with an unity 
of subject and design, to suppose that some of the 
parts or episodes might have been recited separately ; 
that the plan of the whole and the gradual unfolding 
of the story should be so well-known, from familiarity 
with it, that the hearers could delight in the recitation 
of a part, and their imaginations readily place and 
arrange it in the frame-work which fully occupied 
their minds. In later times, it was essential to the 
idea of Greek tragedy that the histories which the 
poets developed should be well-known to the audience, 
and this, probably, was the case with the legends 
of the Trojan war, which were the original foundation 
of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey." 

Again, to refer, by way of illustration, to the habits 
of modern times, the popularity of those romances, 
which are periodically published in parts, shows that 
a Heyne, Ex. viii. p. 796. b Herod, v. 67. 



wolf's third argument. 49 

even with long intervals between the publication of 
the parts, it is possible to sustain the interest of a tale 
and to keep awake the attention of the reader. In 
the same manner, those who listened to the divine 
poems of Homer, might have delighted to receive, 
book by book, his inspired strains. 

All these considerations go far to remove two 
difficulties suggested by Wolf's second argument, but 
independently of them there are inconsistencies in his 
theory which cannot be reconciled with one another. 

It cannot, however, be too strongly, or too constantly 
insisted on, that the decision of the question re- 
specting the personality of Homer, is not affected by 
the fact, which must be admitted, that the poems were 
composed, recited, and transmitted for a long period 
without the use of writing. It really depends upon the 
internal evidence, on an examination of the structure 
of the poems themselves. If they bear evident, unan- 
swerable marks of unity of design, this fact is strong 
enough to overthrow all objections, however subtle or 
ingenious they may be ; for it would be more difficult 
to imagine that oneness of design was the result of 
accident, or of the piecing and cementing together 
the works of many different minds, than to admit all 
the other objections, however incapable of explanation. 

This the acute mind of Wolf perceived ; and there- 
fore, as his third argument, he denied the poetical unity 
of the poems. It is unnecessary to state the steps by 
which he endeavoured to establish this position ; it 
will be far better to show in the history of this con- 

VOL. I. E 



50 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

troversy, how satisfactorily others have proved their 
unity. In doing this it must be admitted, that, as the 
natural result of that transmission, many alterations * 
must have taken place, and many interpolations been 
introduced ; that, although at first a complete whole, 
they became broken up and separated by the re- 
citers, whether rhapsodists or others; and that the 
dismembered parts were rejoined, the dispersed frag- 
ments collected, and the poems reconstructed in their 
present form by command of Pisistratus ; but not then 
for the first time. 

It must also be allowed that Homer drew largely 
upon ancient lays and legends of the ballad kind. The 
early existence of poetry in those ages, which are 
termed mythical, the unbounded fruitfulness of Greek 
genius, the interest which would invest the exploits 
attributed by tradition to the respective heroes of 
those races which formed the Greek nation, must have 
given birth to something like a ballad literature. An 
epic poet would naturally take advantage of this mass 
of popular legends. It would be a rich mine from 
which to draw materials likely to be acceptable to his 
hearers, and he might thus build up an " Iliad," or an 
"Odyssey," as authors of more modern times constructed 
the poem of the "Cid," or the "Niebelungen Lied." 
This opinion is perfectly consistent with a belief in a 
single author of the great Homeric poems, and in that 
unity of design which Aristotle observed and admired 
both in the " Iliad" and " Odyssey." 

The existence of these various legends and poems, 



lachmann's hypothesis. 51 

from which the mind of a single poet compiled one 
consistent and harmonious whole, is perfectly conceiv- 
able without going so far as to assert the hypothesis of 
Heyne, a that there existed some older "Iliad" and 
"Odyssey" from which several bards compiled the diffe- 
rent rhapsodies now composing the poems entitled the 
" Iliad" and " Odyssey." This hypothesis only places 
the difficulty a stej} farther back, without furnishing 
any solution of it ; and it may be asked, is it probable 
that these numerous poets should each have composed 
only a single episode, and that on one limited and narrow 
subject ; or, if they composed other pieces, that not one 
of the rest should have been rescued from oblivion ? 

Whatever the external historical evidence may be, it 
is powerless to overthrow that which is derived from the 
structure of the poems themselves. Unity of plan is 
an unanswerable proof of any poem being the work of 
one mind. This truth was so clearly seen by Lachmann, 
the most sagacious of modern critics who have as- 
sailed the existence of Homer, that he felt that all 
argument was useless until the unity of the Homeric 
poems was disproved. He has, therefore, attempted to 
prove, by a series of apparent incongruities, that the 
boasted unity which has been the theme of critics from 
Aristotle downwards, and which was held up as a 
model by that great master of poetical criticism, does 
not exist. His theory is, that the " Iliad" is made up of 
no less than eighteen different and totally distinct lays, 
easily separable from one another. 

a Opusc. vol. vi. 

e-2 



52 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER V. 

I. LANGUAGE, STYLE, AND TASTE OF THE ILIAD. HOMERIC VERSE. — 

SIMILE. DRAMATIC POWER. — OTHER POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE. LAN- 
GUAGE, VERSIFICATION, ETC, OF THE ODYSSEY. STYLE OF THE 

ILIAD AND ODYSSEY COMPARED. II. PLAN OF THE ILIAD AND 

ODYSSEY. — EPITOMES OF BOTH.— GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

In order to prove from internal evidence that the 
Homeric poems are the works of one author, it is neces- 
sary to establish three points. I. General similarity 
of style, taste, and feeling. II. Unity of plan. III. 
Consistency in the characters. 

I. To enter into a critical examination of the 
style and language of Homer would be inconsistent 
with the plan of this work ; it must suffice, therefore, 
to state the results which seem to arise out of an accu- 
rate study of the text. The language of the " Iliad" is 
throughout evidently that of one period ; it does not 
exhibit so much variation as might be supposed to take 
place during the course of two successive generations ; 
but more than this, the propriety of expression, the 
adaptation of the descriptions to the things described, 
bear such marks of undesigned and natural resem- 
blance, that it is scarcely possible to imagine them to 
have proceeded from more than one mind. Such, it 
must be confessed, is the general impression produced 



UNIFORMITY OF THE HOMERIC POEMS. 53 

upon the reader, unless biassed and inclined towards 
the contrary belief by other arguments and conside- 
rations. The same words, the same phrases, the same 
modes of illustration, are constantly recurring. Some 
favourite similes, e.g. such as those of the lion and 
the boar, are frequently'used. Their details are suffi- 
ciently similar to show probable identity of author- 
ship, without wearying by too much repetition. The 
same musical rhythm and metrical arrangement are 
preserved throughout. The Homeric verse is sui gene- 
ris — it can be compared to that of no other poet in any 
age. And this phenomenon, be it remembered, oc- 
curred when the laws of metre must have been simply 
the suggestions of a delicately organized ear and a 
naturally refined taste. They could not have been 
reduced to rule in so remote an age, and, therefore, 
there were no means of attaining resemblance to 
one great and perfect model by study and imitation. 

There is a characteristic of the Homeric poetry 
which, in the manner of its treatment, is without 
parallel, although it has been imitated by countless 
poets since his time : that is, the Simile. It is, evi- 
dently, the favourite figure of the bard, full of 
knowledge gathered from observation of nature, ani- 
mate and inanimate. He delighted thus to illustrate 
his subject, and at the same time make the illustration 
itself a perfect and independent picture, by painting it 
in the most striking and interesting colours. Apposite 
as the Homeric similes are, it is not that quality which 
strikes the reader as constituting their especial beauty ; 



54 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

we almost lose sight of its intention to illustrate, in 
the profusion and variety of the images presented to us. 
We should be pleased even if the illustration were 
scarcely applicable. This is not the case with the 
similes of any author, except where they are palpable 
imitations of those of Homer. As no poet ever pos- 
sessed the same graphic power, so none could venture, 
without danger of producing weariness, to introduce 
this figure so frequently. Every part of the " Iliad " 
abounds with them, except the commencement and 
conclusion of the poem ; and this fact is to be accounted 
for by the busy character of these portions : the rapid 
succession of events left no room for illustration. It 
will be sufficient to refer to a few of the most charac- 
teristic, and at the same time most beautiful Homeric 
similes, in order to prove that their features are unlike 
those found in the works of any other poets except his 
imitators. 

So in some spacious marsh the poplar falls, 
Smooth-skinned with boughs unladen, save aloft, 
Some chariot-builder, with his axe, the trunk 
Severs, that he may warp it to a wheel 
Of shapely form, meantime, exposed it lies 
To parching airs beside the running stream. 

II. iv. 482 (Cowper). 

As a winter flood 
Impetuous mounds and bridges sweeps away, 
The buttressed bridge checks not its sudden force ; 
The firm enclosure of vine-planted fields, 
Luxuriant, falls before it ; finished works 
Of youthful hinds, once pleasant to the eye, 
Now levelled, after ceaseless rain from Jove. 



HOMERIC SIMILES. 55 

So drove Tydides into sudden flight 
The Trojans. 

II. v. 87 (Cowper). 
As in the garden with the weight surcharged, 
Of his own fruit, and drenched by vernal rains, 
The poppy falls oblique ; so he his head 
Hung languid, by his helmet's weight oppress'd. 

II. viii. 306 (Cowper), 
As when the watch-dogs and assembled swains 
Have driven a tawny lion from the stalls ; 
Then, interdicting him his wished repast, 
Watch all the night, he famished, yet again 
Come, furious on, but speeds not ; kept aloof 
By frequent spears from daring hands, but more 
By flashing torches, which, though fierce, he dreads, 
Till at the dawn he sullen stalks away ; 
So from before the Trojans Ajax stalked, 
Sullen and with reluctance slow retired, 
His brave heart trembling for the fleet of Greece. 

II. xi. 547 (Cowper). 

As the feathery snows 
Fall frequent on some wintry day, when Jove 
Hath risen to shed them on the race of man, 
And show his arrowy stores, he lulls the winds, 
Then shakes them down continual, covering thick 
Mountain-tops, promontories, flowery meads, 
And cultured valleys rich, the ports and shores 
Receive it also of the hoary deep ; 
But there the waves bound it, while all beside 
Lies whelmed beneath Jove's fast descending shower. 
So, thick from side to side, by Trojans hurled 
Against the Greeks, and by the Greeks returned, 
The stormy volleys flew. 

II. xii. 278 (Cowper). 

As wolves that gorge 
The prey yet panting terrible in force ; 
When on the mountains wild they have devoured 
An antlered stag new slain with bloody jaws, 



56 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Troop all at once to some clear fountain, there 
To lap with slender tongues the brimming wave ; 
No fears have they, but at their ease eject, 
From full maws flatulent, the clotted gore : 
Such seemed the Myrmidon heroic chiefs. 

II. xvi. 156 (Cowper). 
As the luxuriant olive, by a swain 
Reared in some solitude, where rills abound, 
Puts forth her buds, and fanned by genial airs, 
On all sides hangs her boughs with whitest flowers ; 
But by a sudden whirlwind, from its trench, 
Upturned it lies, extended on the field : 
Such Panthus' warlike son, Euphorbus, seemed. 

II. xvii. 53 (Cowper). 

Again, dramatic power pervades the whole poem. 
Every character describes himself and tells his own 
story. The poet is never seen, his sentiments are never 
known but through the medium of his actors : he is 
never subjective, he seems to forget himself. Although 
he is describing his own feelings, and enforcing his own 
sentiments, he never personally appears upon the stage, 
• but leaves it to his characters to express his thoughts ; 
and this is not only the case sometimes but universally. 
Is it probable, then, that more than one poet, in one 
age, should have possessed this dramatic faculty in so 
eminent a degree ? 

Uniformity on other points of this nature seems to 
stamp the poem as the work of one mind. 

Stories the most different from one another are told 
precisely in the same way ; conversations and councils 
are carried on after the same plan. The sentiments on 
all important subjects, whether religious, political, or 
social, are uniform and without variation. One high 



UNIFORMITY OF ODYSSEY. 57 

tone of moral principle and willing obedience to law, 
both human and divine, pervades the whole work. 

It is, doubtless, possible to conceive that a school 
of poets, such as the bards of the Homeric age 
must have been, venerated for their inspiration, 
and respected for their moral and religious worth, 
would have resembled each other in mental cul- 
ture, taste, and sentiments; but they could not 
have been equal in that mental power, which would 
have been necessary to produce the uniformity 
in these points observable in the Homeric poems. 
Throughout the " Iliad," no more inequality of talent 
is to be discerned than in great works which are known 
to have had but one author, — at any rate no more than 
would result from interpolations and additions, the 
introduction of which to a certain extent it is im- 
possible to deny. 

The language of the " Odyssey " is, throughout the 
whole poem, as uniform in its structure and its prin- 
ciples as that of the " Iliad." The versification never 
varies, it has always the same mechanical structure 
and the same harmonious flow, which is so difficult 
to arrive at, without betraying a palpable attempt 
at imitation. There can be traced also from beginning 
to end, a consistent moral and religious principle, dra- 
matic power, fidelity in describing, and taste in appre- 
ciating the beauties of nature, and lastly, spirit and 
picturesqueness in the use of similes and illustrations. 

These considerations are in favour of the hypothesis 
that the "Odyssey" had but one author, and was 



58 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

not formed by collecting together lays and episodes 
by different poets. It now remains to inquire, 
whether the confessed discrepancies in language, taste, 
and sentiment, which exist between the " Iliad '" and 
" Odyssey," are too great to warrant the belief that 
one poet was the author of both. 

As regards language, the "Odyssey" undoubtedly 
exhibits, in a few instances, alterations in the form 
of words, which implies some slight advance. The 
forms in the "Odyssey," for example, are shorter 
than those in the " Iliad." The manifest tendency 
of the Greek language having been towards contraction 
and simplification of orthography, it is plain that 
this difference proves that the date of the " Odyssey " 
is subsequent to that of the "Iliad." But, on the 
other hand, as the grammatical construction has under- 
gone no change, it is probable that the difference 
of time was not greater than that of a single life. 

Again, words are introduced in the " Odyssey " 
which are not found in the "Iliad." But this was 
absolutely required by the subject of the poem. Ideas 
were to be expressed in the former, which find no 
place in the latter, and therefore demanded new 
terms. A nomenclature was wanted to describe the 
manners and customs of domestic life, and the various 
wonders met with in the voyages and wanderings 
of Odysseus, different from that which represented 
the warlike exploits of heroes absent from their hearths 
and homes, although the poet was depicting one 
social period. 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ILIAD AND ODYSSEY. 50 

It cannot be denied that the " Odyssey " does not 
show the same sublimity and grandeur, the same 
fervid enthusiasm, and torrent-like eloquence as the 
" Iliad ;" but it does not follow for that reason that 
it is an inferior work. It displays equal genius, but 
less imagination. The calmness of wisdom supersedes 
the storms of passion, and gives a general colouring 
to the whole, as different from that of the "Iliad" 
as the wrathful hero of the Trojan war differs from 
the prudent Odysseus. There is a contrast not only 
between the subjects, but the objects, of the two poems, 
sufficient to account for difference of style. The 
subject of the " Odyssey " is human life in all its varied 
points of view, its strange vicissitudes of fortune ; the 
object is to inculcate, by precept and example, lessons 
of moral and political wisdom. 

Doubtless, Homer was older when he wrote the 
" Odyssey," but he shows no marks, as Longinus would 
have us suppose, of decaying and declining genius. The 
subject was one suited to the riper and calmer judg- 
ment of maturer years, but it is treated skilfully and ap- 
propriately. The language, imagery, and poetical orna- 
ment are as suitable to its gentler nature, as fire and 
impetuosity are to the stirring scenes of the " Iliad." 
Wherever sublimity is appropriate, the " Odyssey * 
rises to as great a height as the "Iliad." If the 
awful contest of the elements is described, there is 
no deficiency in animation ; if the terror, inspired by 
the unexpected presence of Odysseus, and the glories 
of his triumph over vice and profligacy are painted, 



60 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the language is as majestic and dignified as that 
which narrates a battle in the " Iliad." The religious 
and almost devotional feeling which pervades the 
second poem, is far more awful and sublime than 
the mythological attributes with which the poet 
of the "Iliad" invests the Divine nature. Every- 
where there are points of unequalled excellence 
which mark the world's poet. In moral power, in 
wise instruction, in tranquil reflection, in simplicity 
of historical narrative, in pathos, and in comic live- 
liness, the " Odyssey " is even superior to the grander 
poem. 

If there is any difference observable between the 
metrical character of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," 
it is simply this, that there is greater gravity and 
sedateness in that of the latter, more rapidity and 
energy in that of the former. 3 In the " Iliad " 
dactyles are more abundant ; but in both, the ver- 
sification, like the diction, is that which is best suited 
to the poet's intention, and leaves nothing in either 
case to be desired. 

The dissimilarity of style, feeling, and sentiment 
in the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," furnishes but slight 
grounds for disbelieving the identity of authorship. 
The same ocean is at one time tossed by storms, at an- 
other smooth and tranquil as a lake. The same mind 
which is at one time agitated by the violence of pas- 
sion, is at another calm as that of a child. The 
"Iliad" has its intervals of tranquillity and rest, but 
a See Coleridge, Introduction, p. 171. 



THE POEMS COMPARED. Gl 

the variety of its action, the powerful interest with 
which it hurries us from scene to scene, and from 
episode to episode ; the tumult of emotion which the 
descriptions of human passion excite in the breasts of 
those who sympathize with the varied fortunes of its 
heroes, remind us of a wild ocean across which sweep 
furious tempests, but which is occasionally lighted up 
by transient gleams of sunshine. The " Odyssey" by 
its peaceful beauty reminds us of voyages on the mirror- 
like surface of a summer sea, sparkling in the bright 
and cheerful sun-beam, broken only by a gentle ripple. 
In these two divine poems we see the same mind, the 
same creative imagination under two different aspects ; 
and when we remember that vigour and passion are the 
characteristics of youth and of mature age, whilst a 
sadder and more serious calmness marks a later period 
of life, we may well assent to the theory of Longinus 
so far as to attribute the " Iliad" to the manhood, and 
the M Odyssey'' to the old age of the great poet, 
although we cannot admit that his intellectual vigour 
had declined. In the one, doubtless, we are dazzled 
by his genius in its noonday splendour ; in the other we 
admire its setting glories, less brilliant indeed, but not 
less beautiful. 

II. The unity of plan and natural connection of the 
principal events, will best be shown by a short epitome 
of the " Iliad" and " Odyssey ;" and it will be plainly 
seen that as the plot of the latter poem is more intri- 
cate and complex than that of the former, so the skill 
displayed in the construction of it is more remarkable. 



62 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD. 

The poet proposes to sing of Achilles' wrath and its 
terrible consequences to the Greeks. When the poem 
opens more than eight years of the war are supposed 
to have passed away. a Chryseis, who has been allotted 
to Agamemnon as his portion of the Theban spoil, is the 
daughter of a priest of Apollo ; her father proposes to 
ransom her, but is refused. Apollo, in order to avenge 
the cause of his servant, afflicts the army with pesti- 
lence. Achilles calls a council, at which Agamemnon 
consents to restore Chryseis, but declares that he will 
take in her place Briseis, the favourite of Achilles. 
Hence a fierce quarrel arises between the heroes, and 
Achilles refuses to take part in the war. He then 
entreats Thetis to prevail on Zeus to avenge his 
wrongs : she accedes to this request of her son, and 
her prayer is granted. 

Zeus, mindful of his promise to Thetis, deceives 
Agamemnon in a dream. b A council of war is called, 
in which Thersites attacks Agamemnon for his con- 
duct towards Achilles : a battle is determined upon. 
This furnishes an opportunity for enumerating the 
forces both of the Greeks and Trojans. 

The armies now meet, and Paris challenges Mene- 
laus : Helen is to be the prize of the victor. c Mene- 
laus is victorious, but Paris is rescued by Aphrodite, 
and conveyed to the apartments of Helen. Agamem- 
non then demands the fulfilment of the conditions. 

a II. i. b Ibid. ii. « Ibid. iii. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD. 63 

Zeus sends Athene to renew hostilities by causing 
some one to violate the truce. a In the disguise of 
Laodocus she persuades Pandarus to shoot at Mene- 
laus : he is wounded and the battle begins. 

The battle continues, and Diomede is the hero of it. b 
Wounded at first by Pandarus, he afterwards slays him. 
He pursues Aphrodite, and wounds her in the wrist ; 
afterwards he attacks Ares, whom he drives from the 
field. 

As Athene is the patroness of the invincible 
w r arrior Diomede, the augur Helenus sends Hector 
to Troy to advise a procession to the temple of the 
goddess. This gives him an opportunity of visiting 
Paris, and of exhorting him to return to the 
battle, and also of having an interview with his wife, 
Andromache. 

Another single combat is proposed, and this time 
Hector is the challenger/ Ajax is selected by lot as 
the Greek champion. They fight, and, night coming on, 
the heralds separate them. A council is heJd at Troy, 
in which Antenor advises the surrender of Helen, but 
Paris will not consent. The Greeks fortify their 
camp. 

Zeus forbids the gods to interfere ; and taking his 
seat on Ida, he weighs in a balance the fates of the 
two nations, and by his decree fortune favours the 
Trojans. 6 They assault the Greek camp. Here and 
Athene set off in disobedience to the divine command, 

a II. iv. b Ibid. v. 

c Ibid. vi. d Ibid. vii. e Ibid. viii. 



64 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

but are stopped by a message from Zeus. Night puts 
an end to the assault, but Hector prepares for a re- 
newal of it in the morning. 

Agamemnon calls a council, and complains of the 
false promises of Zeus ; in his despair he proposes to 
return to Greece. a Nestor advises him to conciliate 
Achilles by restoring Briseis : consequently Odysseus, 
Phoenix, and Ajax are sent to the tent of Achilles, but 
their proposals are treated with scorn. 

The son of Atreus cannot sleep ; he resolves, there- 
fore, to seek counsel from Nestor and Menelaus. 5 
During the same night Diomede and Odysseus make an 
expedition to the Trojan camp, slay a spy named Dolon, 
and afterwards the Thracian chieftain Rhesus, whose 
chariot and horses they capture. 

Morning breaks, and Discord excites the Greeks to 
battle. c Atrides has preeminently distinguished him- 
self. Diomede, Odysseus, and the physician Machaon, 
are all wounded and retire from the field. Achilles, 
who, notwithstanding his wrath, feels for the Greeks, 
sends Patroclus to inquire who is wounded. Nestor 
urges him to intercede with Achilles, and to persuade 
him to return ; or if not, to entreat that he will send 
Patroclus disguised in his own armour. 

The evil fortune of the Greeks still continues. Hec- 
tor assaults their fortified camp, and succeeds in forcing 
an entrance/ The Greeks fly in confusion to their 
ships. 

Poseidon, disobeying the command of Zeus, dis- 

a II. ix. b Ibid. x. c Ibid. xi. d Ibid. xii. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD. 65 

guised as Calchas, sides with the Greeks ; Zeus still 
supports the Trojans. a Many heroes are slain. Hector 
still leads the assault, upbraids Paris with his effemi- 
nacy, and hurls defiance at Ajax. 

Nestor, who had been sitting drinking with the 
wounded Machaon, goes forth to view the bloody 
field. b There he meets Odysseus, Diomede, and Aga- 
memnon, who rebuke him for forsaking the battle. 
Here borrows the cestus of Aphrodite, and, vanquished 
by love, Zeus sleeps. Poseidon takes advantage of his 
slumbers to help and encourage the Greeks. 

The Greeks rally and rout the Trojans. Zeus 
awakes, reproaches Here, and sends Iris to warn Po- 
seidon from the field of battle. He declares that 
the Greeks shall suffer until the wrath of Achilles is 
appeased. Apollo then, armed with the segis, puts 
the Greeks to flight. Hector calls for fire to burn 
their fleet, but all that come Ajax receives on his 
spear's point, till at length twelve fall by his single arm. 

Achilles arrays Patroclus in his armour, d gives him 
the command of the Myrmidons, and sends him to 
the relief of the camp. The Trojans, thinking that 
it is Achilles, fly. Patroclus pursues them, and per- 
forms wonderful feats of valour. At length Apollo 
smites him on the back, his head grows dizzy, his 
armour falls from him, he is wounded by Euphorbus, 
and then run through the body by Hector. The 
dying words of the young warrior foretell the death 
of his conqueror by the hands of Achilles. 

a II. xiii. b Ibid. xiv. c Ibid. xv. d Ibid. xvi. 

VOL. I. F 



66 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Menelaus bravely defends the body of Patroclus. a 
Hector overtakes the bearers of Achilles' arms and 
puts them on. Zeus declares, that, though successful 
for a while, he shall never return in them to Troy. 
Zeus now relents, and sends Athene, in the form of 
Phoenix, to assist the Greeks. Menelaus bids Anti- 
lochus carry the tidings of Patroclus 1 death to Achilles, 
and then, with Meriones, bears the body from the 
field. 

The groans of Achilles at his friend's death alarm 
Thetis in the depths of ocean. b She hastens to com- 
fort him, and promises that Hephaestus shall furnish 
him with new armour. Iris, sent by Here, bids him 
seek the fight. He obeys, stands by the entrench- 
ment, and, at his very shout, confusion seizes the 
Trojans. Polydamas proposes that they should at 
once retire within the walls of Troy, but Hector 
wrathfully refuses. Hephaestus forges the armour, 
and the shield is described. 

Achilles is reconciled with Agamemnon and gene- 
rously exacts no conditions, but the latter voluntarily 
restores Briseis. c Achilles arrays himself in his ar- 
mour, mounts his chariot, and drives forth to battle. 

Zeus now permits the gods to engage in the battle. d 
iEneas meets Achilles and is rescued by Poseidon, and 
afterwards Hector is saved by Apollo. 

Achilles takes twelve youths prisoners, as offerings 
to the manes of Patroclus. e The river god endeavours 

a II. xvii. b Ibid, xviii. c Ibid. xix. 

d Ibid. xx. e Ibid. xxi. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. G7 

to overwhelm him with his waters, but Athene and 
Poseidon appear, and tell him that \his foe shall soon 
be conquered. The fire god prevails over the deity 
of the stream. The deities engage in the hottest of 
the battle. 

Priam urges Hector not to remain and brave the 
fury of so dread a warrior as Achilles. a They meet 
and fight. Zeus weighs their doom in his golden 
balance ; down sinks the lot of Hector, and his patron 
Apollo leaves his side. He falls transfixed by the 
spear of his adversary, who strips him of his armour, 
and drags his corpse at his chariot wheels. 

The funeral rites of Patroclus are performed, b the 
twelve human victims sacrificed, and games are cele- 
brated in his honour. 

Achilles still wreaks his vengeance on the corpse 
of Hector; and Apollo, in compassion, preserves it 
from mutilation and decay. The aged Priam, at the 
command of Zeus, begs his son's body, and Achilles, 
by the advice of Thetis, accepts the ransom. The 
funeral of Hector concludes the poem. 

ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 

Odysseus being detained in the island of Calypso, 
a council of the gods is held, at which his return to 
Ithaca is resolved upon. d Athene, in the likeness of 
Mentes, appears to Telemachus, and bids him dismiss 
the suitors of Penelope. She upbraids their wasteful- 

a II. xxii. b Ibid, xxiii. c Ibid. xxiv. d Odjs. i. 

f2 



68 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ness and extravagance, and commands Telemactms to 
summon a council, and prepare an expedition to Pylos 
and Sparta, in search of his father. 

Telemachus obeys the instructions of the goddess, 
but, through the influence of the suitors, a ship is 
refused him, and the council hastily dissolved. 3 
Athene, in the form of Mentor, provides him with 
a ship manned by volunteers, and his nurse, Euryclea, 
supplies him with provisions. He sails at sunset, 
accompanied by Athene, without his mother's know- 
ledge. 

The voyagers arrive at Pylos, and are hospitably 
received by Nestor, who tells them all that he knows 
respecting the Greeks since they left Troy. b Nestor 
then advises Telemachus to go to Menelaus, in order 
to learn tidings of Ulysses. The goddess soars to 
heaven, and is recognised by Nestor. Telemachus de- 
parts for Sparta, accompanied by Nestor's son Pisi- 
stratus, and at night they are entertained at Pherse 
by Diodes. 

They arrive at "the Hollow Lacedsemon," and 
Menelaus informs them that Odysseus is in the island 
of Calypso. The scene now shifts to Ithaca, and the 
suitors are represented as engaged in sports before 
the palace-gates. One of them, Antinous, undertakes 
to attack Telemachus on his voyage home. Penelope 
being distressed with anxiety for her son, Athene ap- 
pears to her in a dream to comfort her, in the form of 
her sister Iphthima. 

» Odys. ii. b Ibid. iii. c Ibid. iv. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 69 

Zeus sends Hermes to Calypso, commanding her 
to send away Odysseus.* She reluctantly obeys, and 
enables him to build a raft. He sets sail, but the 
angry Neptune, who was now returning from iEthi- 
opia, raises a violent tempest and wrecks his raft. 
An ocean nymph gives him a magic zone, and tells 
him, without fear, to swim to Phseacia. After much 
suffering he arrives in safety. 

Odysseus, oppressed with fatigue, sleeps. b Mean- 
while Athene, in a dream, commands Nausicaa, the 
daughter of Alcinous, King of Phseacia, to go to 
the river and wash her garments for her approaching 
marriage. The princess, after her task is done, plays 
at ball wdth her maidens, and the ball falling in the 
water wakes Odysseus. Nausicaa declares who she is, 
gives him food and wine and raiment, and leads him 
to her father's city. 

Athene, in the form of a maiden bearing a pitcher, 
conducts Odysseus to the magnificent palace and 
gardens of Alcinous. He, as a suppliant, begs the 
protection of Areta the queen, is hospitably re- 
ceived, and promised a safe return to Ithaca. He 
relates the story of his wanderings. 

A council is held, and a galley prepared for the 
departure of Odysseus. d A banquet follows in his 
honour, and games are celebrated. The court bard 
Demodocus sings in joyous strains the loves of Ares 
and Aphrodite. Next, inspired by Apollo, he sings 
of the Trojan horse, and draws tears from the eyes 

a Odys. v. b Ibid. vi. c Ibid. vii. d Ibid. viii. 



70 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of the stranger. Alcinous thereupon inquires who he 
is, and why he weeps. 

Odysseus tells the tale of his adventures; he relates 
his victory over the Ciconians; 3 his visit to the 
Lotophagi ; his imprisonment in the cave of the 
Cyclops Polyphemus ; his arrival at the island of 
iEolus; b the destruction of his fleet by the Lsestrygo- 
nians; his year's sojourn in the palace of the en- 
chantress Circe ; and his determination to visit the 
realms of Hades, in order to consult the spirit of 
Tiresias. 

He proceeds to relate his descent to Hades ; his 
interview with Tiresias, who prophesies the difficulties 
of his voyage home ; c how that he conversed with 
his mother's shade, and many persons famed in legen- 
dary story, and witnessed the torments of Tityus, 
Tantalus, and Sisyphus. 

He describes his adventures subsequent to his 
return from Hades ; d his escape from the Sirens, and 
from Scylla and Charybdis, with the loss of six of 
his companions ; how his friends, urged by the pangs 
of hunger, slew the oxen of the Sun ; how his ship 
was wrecked in a storm, and himself alone saved on 
the fragments of his vessel. 

The Phseacians load him with presents. 6 He sails, 
and in a deep sleep is conveyed to Ithaca. He wakes 
unconscious that he is in his native land. His ship 
is changed into a rock by Neptune. Athene appears 

a Odys. ix. b Ibid. x. c Ibid. xi. 

d Ibid, xii. e Ibid. xiii. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 71 

to him as a youthful shepherd, and tells him he is in 
Ithaca. They consult how to assail the suitors ; he 
hides his treasures in a cave, and is changed into an 
aged wrinkled beggar by Athene. 

He is hospitably received in the house of a noble 
swineherd named Eumseus." He tells his host a 
feigned story, and declares that Odysseus will soon 
return home. 

Meanwhile, Athene has visited Lacedsemon, in 
order to summon Telemachus home. b As he is offer- 
ing up prayers and libations before setting sail, 
Theoclymenus, an Argive prophet, who has slain 
one of his countrymen, begs to be taken on board. 
The scene shifts to Ithaca, and Eumseus tells his 
story to Odysseus. Telemachus arrives at Ithaca. 
He commits Theoclymenus to the charge of Piraeus, 
and landing, proceeds to the dwelling of Eumseus. 

Eumseus is sent to Penelope to announce the return 
of Telemachus. At the command of Athene, Odys- 
seus makes himself known to his son. The suitors, 
who had gone in vain to intercept Telemachus, re- 
turn to the city. 

Telemachus tells his mother the history of his 
expedition.* 1 Odysseus, led by Eumseus, arrives at 
the palace, and is recognised by his dog Argus. 
Eumseus first enters the banquet hall, and Odysseus 
after him. He is treated with such insult by Anti- 
nous, that even his profligate companions rebuke him 

a Odys. xiv. b Ibid. xv. c Ibid. xvi. 

d Ibid. xvii. 



72 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

for violating the laws of hospitality. Penelope sends 
for the stranger, but he entreats permission to wait 
until the departure of the suitors. Eumseus leaves 
him and returns home. 

The beggar Irus, who is a favourite with the 
suitors, insults Ulysses, who severely chastises him, 
although supported in his insolence by his patrons. a 
The extravagance and debauchery of the suitors con- 
tinue, but Amphinomus, who in the sixteenth book 
had opposed the design upon the life of Telemachus, 
shows himself less wicked than the rest. Penelope 
receives the suitors' gifts, but refuses compliance with 
their wishes. Odysseus upbraids Melantho, the wan- 
ton mistress of Eurymachus, and is taunted and in- 
sulted by her and her paramour. 

Ulysses and Telemachus remove the arms from the 
armoury. b The former tells Penelope that he has 
seen her husband, and that he will soon return. She 
describes to him the web by which she deceives the 
suitors. Euryclea, attending on Ulysses while bathing, 
discovers who he is, by a scar on his leg. The acci- 
dent which caused it is described. 

Ulysses, passing the night in the porch of the 
palace, is witness to the licentious conduct of the 
women. A feast is celebrated in honour of Apollo, 
and the debauchery of the suitors continues. The 
suitors urge the assassination of Telemachus. but 
Amphinomus, warned by an omen, declares that he is 
under the divine protection. Theoclymenus, the Hype- 
a Odys. xviii. b Ibid. xix. c Ibid. xx. 



ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 73 

resian seer, beholds, as in a vision, the awful punish- 
ment which awaits the suitors. 

Penelope promises to marry the suitor, who shall 
bend the bow of Ulvsses, and shoot between twelve 
axes placed in a line. a The bow is brought forward, 
but no one can bend it. Odysseus discovers himself 
to Eumseus and Philsetius ; bends the bow, and shoots 
between all the axes ; and, as he shoots, thunder and 
lightning burst from heaven. 

Ulysses discovers himself, and all the suitors, with 
the exception of Melanthius, Medon the bard, and 
Phemius the herald, are slain ; the latter two are 
spared because they were in secret faithful to Ulysses. b 
Melanthius is then bound, and afterwards cut to 
pieces. The suitors' paramours are condemned to 
clear away the dead, and are then hung. 

Euryclea informs Penelope that her husband is re- 
turned, and the suitors slain. c She will not believe the 
news, but at length she is convinced, and is transported 
with tenderness and love. They discourse of all that 
has happened to them since they separated. They re- 
tire to rest, and next morning Ulysses and his friends 
leave the city to visit Laertes. 

Hermes conducts the souls of the suitors to Hades. d 
Odysseus discovers himself to his father, Laertes. A 
rebellion breaks out, in which Eupithes, the father of 
the suitor Antinous, is the ring-leader. Eupithes is 
slain by Laertes, and the rebels defeated. By the 

a Odys. xxi. b Ibid. xxii. c Ibid, xxiii. 

d Ibid. xxiv. 



74 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

mediation of Athene, Odysseus grants peace to his 
offending but now submissive subjects. 

A mere cursory perusal of these epitomes is sufficient 
to show that there is in both poems that unity of plot 
which Aristotle pointed out and admired. Events 
follow each other in natural succession ; they do not 
bear marks of having been forced into their places ; 
the subsidiary narratives, or episodes, are suggested 
and ever after rendered necessary by the regular course 
of the action. And these are the results of the poet's 
taste, and not of technical and artificial contrivance, 

In the " Iliad," the one great event proposed by the 
poet as the subject of his song, is the wrath of Achilles; 
and with the exception of a few passages, which may 
be considered as interpolations, the development of 
this idea, with all its terrible and widely extended con- 
sequences, forms the web and texture of the plot from 
the commencement to the catastrophe. The disas- 
trous consequences are represented as of two kinds, 
(1) Those which the insult and injustice, of which 
the Greeks had been guilty towards Achilles, brought 
upon themselves, and, (2) those which sprang from 
Achilles 1 indulgence of his own angry feelings, and 
his determined refusal to abstain from the contest. 

Both these combine to invest with a powerful interest 
the character of Achilles, and to make him, amongst 
the many heroes of the poem, the noblest, the most 
heroic of them all, and to claim for him and for his 
wrongs, the largest amount of the reader's sympathy. 



UNITY OF THE ILIAD. 75 

The first produces this effect by representing him as 
undeservedly injured ; the second, by showing his supe- 
riority to the other Greek chieftains, and their inca- 
pacity as compared with his warlike prowess. As, 
therefore, there is one hero to whom the rest are 
subordinate, the interest, however divided, concentrates 
itself on this one point ; and although we gladly ac- 
company the poet in his delightful digressions, we feel 
that there is in reality one hero, the course of whose 
adventures we are pursuing. 

The unity of the plan consists in this, that all its 
events group themselves round Achilles. Nor is this 
unity broken by the action being continued after the 
wrath of Achilles has been pacified, and the death 
of his friend avenged. This might, perhaps, at first 
sight appear the most natural catastrophe, were it 
not for the strong feeling which existed amongst 
the Greeks respecting the rites of sepulture. Not 
even the funeral games of Patroclus would have 
been sufficient to leave that impression upon the 
minds and feelings of his hearers, which a humane 
and religious poet would consider desirable. The 
vengeance taken by the exasperated hero on the 
senseless corpse of his enemy, was too horrible an idea 
to be left in possession of the mind, at the conclusion 
of the poem, without counteraction. This would have 
been carrying vengeance too far, and in an age which, 
though rude and warlike, had much true refinement, 
would, perhaps, have destroyed the admiration felt for 
the hero, 



76 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Ferocious as in some of its features the warrior 
character was, as typified in Achilles, it was human- 
ised and softened by a noble and compassionate na- 
ture. The poet had an excellent opportunity for 
exhibiting the brighter side of the heroic character, by 
representing Achilles as sympathizing with the bitter 
grief of a bereaved father, and granting to his earnest 
supplications the only comfort of which he was capable. 
For this reason the present conclusion appears to be an 
integral part of the " Iliad," and absolutely necessary 
to the full completeness of the poet's design. 

In the " Odyssey, " the unity of the plot, notwith- 
standing its greater complexity, is still more evident, if 
viewed according to the same principle ; here the in- 
terest is still more decidedly concentrated upon the 
fortunes of an individual. He is engaged in a greater 
variety of adventures than the hero of the " Iliad" could 
possibly be, because the latter holds himself aloof from 
all the exploits which constitute the main substance of 
the poem ; the hero of the " Iliad," on the contrary, 
is personally engaged in most of them. Hence there 
are in the " Odyssey," longer narratives and more nu- 
merous digressions from the main order of events ; but 
all converge to the same point. The variety of interest, 
the rapid change of scene, are absolutely required by 
the conditions which the poet has imposed upon him- 
self. He was bound to give a long series of interest- 
ing adventures, and the only method of doing this was 
by thus interweaving them with a plot of the dimen- 
sions suited to epic poetry. 



UNITY OF THE ODYSSEY. 77 

The " Odyssey" has been supposed naturally to ter- 
minate with the recognition of Ulysses. This is, doubt- 
less, the denouement ; but the moral object of the 
poem would not have been accomplished without the 
restoration of the legitimate monarch to his throne, 
and to his proper place in the hearts and affections of 
his people. Nor is it easy to believe that the meeting 
of Odysseus with his father Laertes is unnecessary to 
satisfy the interest of the poem, or that any poet be- 
sides the author of the whole, could have described it in 
such exquisitely touching terms. It is therefore pro- 
bable, that the present conclusion formed part of the 
poet's design. 

With regard to the circumstances attending the 
vengeance taken upon the suitors, it must be con- 
fessed that the justice of the case, the belief that 
such shameless vice demanded the severest punish- 
ment, is the only defence which can be made for the 
savage mutilation of Melanthius ; it is so utterly in- 
consistent with the general character of Odysseus, that, 
if this portion of the poem is genuine, it must be in- 
tended to represent him, not as gratifying a brutal 
vengeance, but acting as the appointed minister of in- 
exorable unrelenting justice. The genuineness, how- 
ever, of the second Necyia, or the descent of the 
suitors to Hades, cannot be defended : it is superfluous 
and unnecessary ; it is so palpable an imitation that it 
may safely be pronounced an interpolation by a subse- 
quent and not very skilful hand. 



78 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Ill, CONSISTENCY IN THE CHARACTERS. — THEIR INDIVIDUALITY. — 

ACHILLES AGAMEMNON. — MENELAUS. NESTOR. — AJAX.—- DIOMEDE. 

ODYSSEUS. — HECTOR. PRIAM. PARIS. HELEN. HECUBA. — AN- 
DROMACHE. — TELEM ACHUS. PENELOPE. — EURYCLE A, NAUSICAA. 

EUJOEUS. THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED BY THE OPPONENTS OF HOMER'S 

PERSONALITY NOT FULFILLED. THE MOST PROBABLE THEORY. 

REASON WHY SPURIOUS POEMS AND PASSAGES WERE RECEIVED AS 
GENUINE. — PASSAGES WHICH HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED AS INTERPO- 
LATIONS. — WOLF'S OPINION OF HIS OWN ARGUMENTS. — WHAT HIS- 
TORIC TRUTH IS CONTAINED IN- THE HOMERIC POEMS. 

III. The well-known authority of Horace laid down, 
that consistency of character is essential to epic ex- 
cellence. His axiom, — 

" servetur ad inmm 



Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet," a 

was founded upon a study of Homer, nor has the 
character of the great poet, on this point, ever been 
successfully impugned. Very brief observations there- 
fore will be necessary. 

In his heroes, the poet evidently intended to typify 
some striking phase of the heroic character. They 
all have their points of resemblance, but the points of 
contrast are more fully dwelt upon. Each is a re- 

a Horace, Art. Poet. 126. 



CHARACTERS OF THE ILIAD. 79 

presentative man : standing out, therefore, thus in 
bold relief, the slightest inconsistency would be at 
once detected. So strong was the poet's impression 
of the distinct individuality of his heroes, that fre- 
quently the same distinctive epithet is applied to 
each, on the majority of occasions, throughout his 
whole career. Opposite as are the traits which mark 
the character of Achilles, they are all, vices as well as 
virtues, such as may be found united in noble and 
impetuous natures. Revengeful as he is, even to 
ferocity, his warm and passionate heart can sympathise 
with deep sorrow, and feel compassion for the van- 
quished. He is haughty and reserved, and yet a 
devoted and affectionate friend, unrelenting under a 
sense of injustice, yet, when satisfaction is offered, he 
is generously and unconditionally forgiving. 

Agamemnon has all the regard for his subjects, 
which marks the sovereign of a free people, but his 
generosity proceeds from impulse rather than prin- 
ciple, and therefore he is generally dignified, but 
sometimes vacillating. 

Menelaus, though not kingly, possesses the virtues 
of royal race, he is brave and gentle, and has an 
unfeigned respect for the regal authority. 

Nestor is an old man, and an experienced states- 
man, he has all the garrulity of the one, and the 
long-sighted wisdom of the other. He is too cheerful 
to betray much of the querulousness of age, although 
he cannot forbear comparing the virtues of former 
days with the degeneracy of the present generation. 



80 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Ajax and Diomede are thorough soldiers. The 
former has all the physical strength and animal cou- 
rage which fit a man for the perils of war; the 
latter, the moral firmness and well-disciplined cool- 
ness which render him fit either to command or 
obey. 

Odysseus possesses every qualification, bodily as well 
as mental, for influencing men's minds ; he is of noble 
figure and graceful bearing, sound-judging and discreet ; 
an accurate observer of men and things. His intimate 
knowledge of the human heart and its crooked ways, 
causes the policy, which is his favourite weapon, to 
appear at times crafty and dishonest, but it is only 
appearance, for he is benevolent, and has a strong 
sense of justice. 

Hector unites moral with physical courage, but his 
warlike spirit sometimes degenerates into rashness. 
He is domestic and affectionate, and shows that ten- 
derness towards women and children which charac- 
terises true bravery. 

Priam is an Oriental sovereign, whose yielding yet 
amiable temper allows things to take their own course. 
He is too careless and self-indulgent to have any 
high moral principle, and yet he has strong affections 
and impulses towards good. At length the depth 
of his despair awakens his energy, and in his old age, 
for the first time, he acts with vigour and heroism. 

Paris is an effeminate and conceited fop, but brave 
notwithstanding, as those often are who have been 
brought up in refinement and luxury. 



CHARACTERS OF THE ODYSSEY. 81 

Helen, though a light wanton, who has left her 
husband and child for an adulterer, is full of fascina- 
tion. She is neither bold nor depraved; she can 
admire chastity, she feels remorse for her sin ; to 
her seducer she is tender and faithful ; but even when 
restored to her husband there remains that volup- 
tuous self-indulgence which perhaps paved the way 
to her weakness and her fall. 

Hecuba is a woman of strong passions, whose fe- 
rocity is increased and not softened by affliction ; she 
never can look on Helen in any other light than 
as the cause of all her sorrows, and of course her 
revengeful temper can never forgive her. 

Andromache, the affectionate wife and mother, has 
not a spark of selfishness in her character. In his 
life-time she was wrapped up in her husband, and 
after his death, though overwhelmed with the weight of 
her sorrows, she thinks more of her husband's fame, her 
child's irreparable loss, and the ruin of her country. 

Such are the principal characters of the " Iliad." 
Those who play an important part in the " Odyssey," 
are very few. Helen and Odysseus have been already 
described, and in the luxurious matron restored to 
her place in society, and the patient strong-willed 
voyager struggling with adverse fortune, the same 
points of character which were depicted in the " Iliad " 
are plainly discoverable, modified, as they necessarily 
must be, by change of circumstances. 

Telemachus is a modest, ingenuous, and promising 
youth, full of consideration for his mother, and al- 

VOL. I. G 



82 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

though not yet able to act for himself, willing to act 
with decision and energy at the suggestion of a wise 
counsellor, and with a strong sense of filial duty and 
obedience to his father's will. 

Penelope appears to possess the cool diplomatic 
policy which distinguishes her husband, alloyed with 
somewhat of duplicity. Exposed as she is to the 
solicitations of the suitors, she has doubtless a difficult 
part to play; but the false hopes with which she 
deceives them, and the stratagem with which she puts 
off the fulfilment of her promise, whilst she permits 
their riot and extravagance, are scarcely consistent 
with a high tone of morality. She remains, however, 
faithful to her husband, even when his return scarcely 
seems probable; and when her fidelity is rewarded 
by his return, her coldness gradually melts, her caution 
gives way to conviction, at length all her calculating 
shrewdness vanishes. The mask and restraint under 
which she had so long lived are removed, and her 
true woman's nature shines forth at once in all its 
tenderness and affection. Such a change, at first 
sight may appear inconsistent, but the skilful and 
gradual manner in which it is managed by the poet 
renders it perfectly natural. 

Euryclea is a model nurse, she continues the same 
attention to Telemachus when he is a youth which 
she paid to him in infancy; nor is her kindness un- 
returned by her foster-child, for she it is to whom 
he applies in his difficulty when a ship is refused him 
by the suitors. 



CHARACTERS OF THE ODYSSEY. 83 

The elegant and unaffected simplicity of Nausicaa 
is most charming, and the noble swineherd, Eumseus, 
the keeper of the king's swine, the principal wealth 
of his rocky isle, presents an inimitable picture of 
that sturdy yeoman-like independence which is fos- 
tered and nurtured by the pursuits of rural life. 

Such is the internal evidence in favour of both the 
great Homeric poems having been the works of one 
mind, and to this evidence may be added the following 
considerations. It is not too much to assert that the 
conditions requisite for denying the personality of 
Homer have never been fulfilled in any nation or in 
any times. The separators of the " Iliad " from the 
" Odyssey," require the belief that, during a period 
extending over no very wide space, there should have 
lived two poets, whose talents and genius were of so 
high an order and so nearly equal, as to have produced 
these two great poems. And yet the history of the 
world proves that no nation, during the whole period 
of its existence, has ever possessed more than one 
great epic poet. Rome had one Virgil, modern Italy 
one Dante, England one Milton. 

If the separators demand that which is improbable, 
those who attribute the poems to a large number of 
original bards, argue in favour of a moral impossibility. 
To adopt their view, implies the belief that at a period 
when all the rest of the world was destitute of litera- 
ture, except the Semitic nations inhabiting Palestine, 
Greece and her colonies were so fruitful in poets, as to 
give birth, almost simultaneously, to a vast number; 

G 2 



84 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

that this phenomenon never occurred in that country, 
either before or since ; that they all chose for their 
theme different parts of the same subject; and that 
these, by accident or design, were so portioned out 
amongst them, as to be capable of being welded together 
into one harmonious whole. This whole was so com- 
plete, as to contain all that so acute a critic as Aris- 
totle, and many scholars of the most accomplished taste 
since his time, deemed essential to an epic poem. 
Moreover, those who arranged and set in order these 
separate poems, whether we call them Rhapsodi or 
Diasceuastse, must have possessed such exquisite skill 
and judgment, that the places where they are joined 
together never present the appearance of abrupt tran- 
sition from one part to another. And as this union 
could not have been effected without the composition 
of some fresh passages, they must have been poets 
and imitators nearly equal to the original composers 
themselves. 

The most probable conclusion to be arrived at from 
balancing and comparing together these discordant 
views, is the following : — At some period beyond the 
reach of history, a long and difficult struggle took place 
on the coast of Asia Minor between the natives and 
the Hellenic inhabitants of the opposite continent, which 
ended in the success of the latter. Hence arose in 
a poetic age a multitude of lays and legends, which 
were constantly sung and recited on all public and 
private occasions, and took a strong hold on the taste 
and affections of the conquering people. These lays 



PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE POEMS. 85 

celebrated the exploits of heroes supposed to have 
been engaged in this war, whose names were well- 
known and popular, and lived in the memory of pos- 
terity. 

Legends of the gods and mythological traditions, 
which gradually assumed an uniform and systematic 
form, were mingled with the deeds of men, and thus 
the formation of the Greek mythology came to be 
attributed to the author of the Homeric poems. At 
length there arose one master mind, the grasp of 
whose intellect could conceive a framework into which 
it was possible to weave these various traditions, so 
as to form one epic story. The time when this took 
place is unknown, but as the state of society, of 
government, of the arts, correspond somewhat with 
those of Orientals, as described in Sacred History at 
the time of the Jewish monarchy, the period at which 
this poet flourished, may have been that fixed by 
Herodotus. He was a Greek, certainly an Asiatic, 
probably an Ionian ; what his name was matters not, 
after ages have called him Homer. In those tradi- 
tions of a warlike nature, he found the materials for 
a poem, which he called the "Iliad," the central 
subject from which all the events and episodes di- 
verged, being the wrath of Achilles. From those 
lays which sing of the arts of peace and the wonders 
of foreign lands, which he enriched by his own know- 
ledge and observation, he framed the skeleton of 
the " Odyssey." Probably he did not write them, 
but if he had known how to write, and had done 



86 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

so, few would have been able to read his poems. 
The art of writing may have been invented, but it 
must have been in its infancy, and known to few, 
and the materials for writing must have been scarce 
and inconvenient. 

Literature was addressed to the ear. At every 
social meeting, every gathering for joy or for sorrow, 
the bard was a welcome guest. Possessing the strong 
powers of memory which belong to one absorbed in 
the subject of his inspiration, he sang parts of his 
tale to an audience which listened with rapt atten- 
tion. After he had passed away, his poems still lived 
in the affections of his countrymen. Multitudes of 
admirers (Homeridse), schools of poets, like the schools 
of the prophets, of whom mention is made in the Old 
Testament, recited or imitated his strains, and wan- 
dered as minstrels from place to place, some reciting 
portions of Homer, others original poems, afterwards 
called Cyclic, the themes of which were connected 
with the Trojan war. 

These wandering minstrels are frequently desig- 
nated by the name of Rhapsodists, respecting the 
meaning of which word there is much doubt and 
difficulty, and nothing is for certain known. Some 
have derived it from the pdZlog, or wand, which 
the bard carried as the insignia of his office. Others 
from pdwretv, to sew, because they joined, or, as it 
were, stitched together the various lays into one large 
poem. Pindar a alludes to both etymologies. 
a See Diet, of Antiq., ii. 506. 



ARRANGEMENT OF THEM. 87 

Thus the poems got broken up, dispersed, and sepa- 
rated. Their popularity prevented them from being 
forgotten ; but when the art of writing so advanced, 
as to provide the means of preserving them, they 
existed only in an unconnected form. Solon, a ac- 
cording to Diogenes Laertius, was the first to per- 
ceive that the unconnected poems and episodes which 
the bards and minstrels were accustomed to recite, 
were parts of a whole, and under his direction some 
attempt was made at arrangement and order. Then 
arose Pisistratus, famed like the rest who bear the 
misapplied name of tyrants, for their patronage of 
learning and literature. He saw that the first step to 
cultivate Athenian taste, was to collect together into 
one these Homeric fragments, the " disjecta membra 
poetse." Part, probably, already existed in writing, 
and from these imperfect copies, but still more from 
oral traditions, the Homeric poems were arranged 
by poets employed under the direction of Pisistratus, 
and assumed the form which they now possess. Thus 
they became the fixed and recognised standard of 
Greek poetic taste, and the foundation of their na- 
tional literature. 

This was an age ready to admire with enthusiasm 
rather than to criticise. The age of cold criticism did 
not commence in Greece until the fire of Hellenic 
genius was well nigh extinct. Hence much was 
accepted as genuine and Homeric which was in reality 
the work of imitators — poems which the Homerids and 
a Diog. Laert. i. o~. 



88 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Rhapsodists had themselves written. Not only perfect 
works were attributed to Homer which modern critical 
taste has with reason pronounced deficient in the 
stamp of his genius, but interpolations were intro- 
duced by those who are commonly called Diasceuastee 
into the genuine poems. 

To the first undoubtedly belong those poems which 
are classed under the appellation of Cyclic, the Hymns, 
or Proemia, as the ancients termed them ; and the 
comic and satiric poems, the " Margites " and the 
" Batrachomyomachia," or Battle of Frogs and Mice. 

Easy as it is to determine the spurious poems of 
Homer from their immeasurable inferiority to the 
" Iliad " and " Odyssey," it is not so easy to point out 
the interpolations, so skilfully are they interwoven 
with the original web of the story. 

Discrepancies and inconsistencies do not furnish 
sufficient grounds for determining a passage to be spu- 
rious, since in so long a poem, especially if retained 
in the memory without the help of writing, it is not 
only probable but certain that the poet would fall into 
errors of this kind. Horace knew human nature 
well when he said — 

" Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus." 

Nor can it be asserted that all passages or episodes are 
interpolated which could be safely omitted without 
injury to the plot, or breaking the thread of the 
narrative. If all those parts were interpolations 
which have in turn been held to be so by successive 
critics, very little of the "Iliad" would be left, except 



INTERPOLATIONS IN THE ILIAD. 89 

the first book ; and that portion which commences with 
the thirteenth and ends with the eighteenth. Many of 
the most beautiful scenes would be eliminated — such 
as the speech of Andromache to Hector, 3 and the 
description of the shield of Achilles/ and other pas- 
sages which have always justly been considered as best 
representing the mind and genius of Homer. The 
arguments, however, most deserving of consideration, 
are those which have been brought against the genuine- 
ness of the following passages ; but even many of these 
arguments, although the most plausible, are far from 
satisfactory. 

I. The catalogue of the ships has been condemned, 
simply because it may be omitted without injury ; but 
it may be answered, (1.) that such an enumeration, 
setting forth as it does the glory of Greece, gave the 
poet an opportunity of kindling a feeling of enthu- 
siasm in his audience which no poet would willingl) 
have passed over. (2.) That there is not throughout 
this long description the slightest inconsistency with 
any other part of the poem. (3.) That the accuracy 
of the descriptive epithets attached to each locality 
exhibits that felicitous power of observing and de- 
picting the most striking natural features which is 
discernible throughout the Homeric poems. 

II. The single combat between Menelaus and Paris 3 
has been considered spurious, on the ground of incon- 
sistency with what follows. 

III. The scene on the walls of the city between 
a II. iii. b Ibid, xviii. c Ibid. ii. 



90 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Priam and Helen a is said by Heyne to be an interpo- 
lation. 

IV. The Aristea of Diomede, b which forms the sub- 
ject of the fifth and sixth books, has been thought by 
Heyne, with some probability, to be a separate poem. 

V. The expedition of Diomede and Odysseus c by 
night, commonly called the Dolonea, where they kill 
Rhesus, the Thracian chieftain. 

VI. All the conclusion of the poem subsequent to 
the death of Hector. This assertion bears some ap- 
pearance of probability, because there is no doubt that 
the death of Hector is the true catastrophe of the 
poem. But it must not be forgotten how deep a 
reverence the ancient Greeks entertained for the dead, 
nor would this reverence have been satisfied had not 
Achilles fully avenged his friend's death, and per- 
formed his funeral obsequies. This same reverence 
probably caused the poet not to consider his work per- 
fect until the mutilated and insulted corpse of the 
brave Trojan was restored to his mourning father, and 
the last sacred offices were performed even to the 
enemy of his country. 

Such are some of the alleged interpolations in the 
" Iliad." In the " Odyssey" they are by no means so 
numerous. 

I. The song of Demodocus, the Phseacian bard, d has 
been pronounced spurious, chiefly on the ground that 
there is a manifest discrepancy in the mythology. 
Venus being here represented as the wife of Vulcan, 

a II. iii. b Ibid. v. vi. c Ibid. x. d Od. viii. 



INTERPOLATIONS IN THE ODYSSEY. 91 

instead of one of the Graces. Mure has well observed, 3 
(1.) that the legend is represented as that of a Phaeacian 
bard, and therefore need not be in accordance with the 
Homeric mythology ; (2.) that the adultery and di- 
vorce of Venus reconciles the apparent opposition. 

II. The Alexandrians, Aristophanes, and Aristar- 
chus, considered that the " Odyssey " terminated with 
the 296th line of the twenty-third book. The recogni- 
tion of Ulysses and Penelope is, doubtless, the proper 
catastrophe, and the second Xecyia, b or descent to 
Hades, has so many points of resemblance to the first 
that it is scarcely possible to conceive such unneces- 
sary repetition, especially in a poem, the construction 
of which is so artificial, and the unity of design so 
carefully maintained throughout as it is in the 
" Odyssey." 

That there are interpolations and corruptions it 
would be idle to deny, but so skilfully have they been 
introduced that no critic can point them out with cer- 
tainty, nor is there one of those which are best sup- 
ported, so contradictory of the Homeric spirit as to 
offend the taste of the most fastidious admirer. 

Even Wolf himself was scarcely converted by his 
own arguments, " So often," says he, " as I withdraw 
mv mind from the historical arguments, and observe in 
Homer's poems one colouring, the adaptation of the 
events to the times, and the times to the events, the 
consistency and agreement of the allusions, the sanie- 

a Mure, ii. xviii. 5. b Od. xxiv. 

c Wolf, Preface to Homer, p. xxii. 



92 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ness of character preserved in the heroes, I am angry 
with myself, and blame my own diligence and bold- 
ness, and look on all which we read in Homer as 
Homeric, and in them admire the skill of Homer 
alone." 

One more question still remains for consideration, 
and that an important one, on which scholars have 
entertained great variety of opinions. Were the 
events recorded in the Homeric poems purely fabulous, 
and the productions of the poet's imagination, or 
was there some substratum of historical truths on 
which they were founded? 

It is an historical fact that an Hellenic race, 
called iEolians, had settlements at some early period 
on the coasts of Asia Minor. It is plain, also, that they 
were not Asiatics ; that they differed from the inhabi- 
tants of Asia, and from all Orientals in their language, 
their habits and customs, their religious faith and wor- 
ship. It is also probable, from the internal evidence 
of poems written by one who was himself one of 
cognate race with them, that they were inferior to 
the Asiatics in the arts, luxuries, and refinements of 
civilized life. And, lastly, as the Europeans with 
whom they were evidently connected by blood, were 
celebrated not only in mythical times but also in those 
ages which are within the reach of history for their 
valour and warlike prowess, it is not too much to 
assume that they were superior to the generality of 
Orientals as warriors. Greeks, in historical times, 
were successful in their struggles against the people of 



HOMERIC POEMS FOUNDED ON TRUTH. 93 

Asia, it is probable, therefore, that it would have been 
so in those ages of which there are only traditions. 
and no trustworthy records. 

Now it is not probable that the JEolians should have 
obtained a settlement in the Troad without a strug- 
gle: that the inhabitants should have tamely and unre- 
sistingly evacuated a territory consisting of a fertile 
and well-watered plain, possessing forests of timber fit 
for building ships, an extensive sea-coast, and a beauti- 
ful climate. The settlement must have been made by 
conquests,, and not by a simple act of migration, such 
as takes place to uninhabited countries. 

The legends of the conquering people furnish pre- 
cisely such a narrative as would account for their 
settlement in Asia Minor. Stripped of all their 
romantic detail, of the fabulous matter which gradually 
grew amidst them in the national lays and ballads, 
they relate that a confederate army of Greeks invaded 
the Troad. maintained a long and difficult struggle 
with the inhabitants, and were eventually successful. 
This is a tale the parallel of which may be found 
in the history of all nations, a tale which is not only 
antecedently credible, but which alone would account 
for the subsequent state of that portion of Asia 
Minor. It is not, therefore, sufficient to say that the 
traditions of the Trojan war, which, dispersed in 
different lays and legends, furnished Homer with the 
materials for his poems, may possibly have originated 
in some such struggle, but it may be asserted that no 
other hypothesis will satisfactorily account for the 



94 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

historical fact that an iEolian migration into the coast- 
country of Asia Minor took place in pre-historic times. 

It may even be added, in further support of this 
view, that legends so numerous, so similar in their 
details, so uniform in their character, could scarcely 
have existed unless they had their origin in substantial 
truth. So deep a root had they taken in the Greek 
mind, so absorbing was their interest to the exclusion 
of any poetical topics which did not claim kindred 
with them, so early did a firm belief exist in their 
general truthfulness, so wide was their influence over 
the whole field of Greek literature — not in one age 
only, but during centuries — that the only plausible 
mode of accounting for the phenomenon is by assum- 
ing the hypothesis of their being founded on fact. 
Every other method would be not only difficult but 
unnatural. 

If it be argued that the probable and improbable 
parts of the legend rest on the same evidence, and 
therefore that if we believe in a Trojan war at all, 
we must on the same grounds receive as true all the 
mythological and miraculous machinery, the answer is 
that we do not believe in the Trojan war only because 
it is the production of the legend, but because that 
bare framework, which imagination afterwards clothed 
with poetical and mythical ornament, is absolutely 
necessary in order to account for what rests on actual 
historical evidence — namely, the occupation of the 
Troad by iEolians. 



THE HOMERIC AGE. 95 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE HOMERIC AGE. DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. —VALUE OF HOMERIC 

TESTIMONY. RELIGION. ZEUS AND THE OTHER DEITIES. WORSHIP. 

NO HERO-WORSHIP. DIVINATION. — DREAMS. FUTURE STATE. 

GOVERNMENT. KINGLY POWER HEREDITARY AND LIMITED. ADMI- 
NISTRATION OF JUSTICE. — SOCIAL HABITS AND INSTITUTIONS. 

HOSPITALITY. BARBARISM IN WAR. — INSECURE STATE OF SOCIETY. 

— LOVE. THE CONDITION OF THE FEMALE SEX. — FEMALE EMPLOY- 
MENTS. — HOUSEHOLDS. MARRIAGE. OLD AGE. DEATH. SCIENCE. 

ASTRONOMY. GEOGRAPHY. MEDICINE. ARITHMETIC. POETRY. 

ORATORY. MUSIC. STATUARY. PAINTING. ORNAMENTAL ARTS. 

USEFUL ARTS. ART OF WAR. 

The Homeric poems contain so many particulars 
respecting the age and state of society which they 
profess to describe, that it will be interesting to 
examine the details of the picture presented to our 
view. These points shall be treated of in the follow- 
ing order: — religion, government, social habits and 
institutions, science and art. 

On these points the authority of the Homeric 
poems ought to be allowed great weight. The poet, 
as he is evidently describing scenery with which he 
himself is frequently familiar, is also depicting a 
state of society either such as prevailed in his own 
times or was not far removed from them. Tradition 
furnished him with his story and his heroes, but 



96 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

personal observation, and such testimony as did not 
extend so far backward as to be out of the sphere of 
truth and probability provided him with the scenes 
in which they moved, and the manner of life which 
they led, as well domestic as political. The trust 
reposed in Homer as an historian by ancient authors, 
such as Thucydides and Strabo, a is far greater than 
is thus claimed for him. They felt strongly that he 
was their only authority, that if they deserted him 
they had nothing to trust to, and therefore they clung 
to him, not only as a faithful delineator of life and 
manners and principles, but as a truthful and credible 
historian. 

It has often been remarked that the state of society 
w r hich the Homeric poems depict, is a patriarchal one, 
and points of resemblance have been pointed out 
between it and that patriarchal period which is de- 
scribed in sacred literature. Doubtless the Homeric 
age is patriarchal in its character: it is the inter- 
mediate period between barbarism and refinement ; 
it has all the delightful simplicity of patriarchal times 
without the affectation of more advanced social culti- 
vation. But with this simplicity, the descriptions 
given by Homer combine an intercourse with the 
world by means of extended commerce, and conse- 
quently a state of art, science, and general civilization, 
in advance of the patriarchal stage of society. 

There will not, therefore, be found a very close 
parallelism. The patriarch of a pastoral tribe, sum- 
a Strabo, Geogr., 1. i. 



EARLY RELIGION OF GREECE. 97 

moned from his native land into a new country, living 
in tents, his riches principally consisting in flocks and 
herds, and asses, and camels, and servants, would 
naturally differ much from the chieftains, or kings, 
of races inhabiting Western Asia and Europe — living 
in cities, in the enjoyment of wealth and luxury, 
raising armies, and going, for the sake of conquest, 
on distant expeditions. The period of the Jewish 
monarchy will furnish points of resemblance to the 
Homeric age, not to be found in patriarchal times. 

It is probable that the earliest form of religion 
in Greece was monotheism. It has been already 
observed, on the authority of Herodotus, a that the 
Pelasgians worshipped gods which had neither name 
nor surname. The only way in which the fact of 
their knowing no distinguishing appellations for differ- 
ent deities can be accounted for, is by supposing that 
they were the worshippers of one god. But, with 
so imaginative a people as the Greeks, this belief 
did not continue long ; they soon peopled heaven and 
earth, and the sea, and the regions under the earth, 
with deities. Men of heroic character were, by an 
admiring posterity, admitted into the peaceful orders 
of the gods after death, and the transition to poly- 
theism must have been early and rapid. As these 
deities were the creations of a poetic imagination, and 
as the development and moulding into form of those 
traditions which owed their birth and their origin to 
the popular mind, was the work of the early poets, 

a Herod, ii. 52. 
VOL. I. H 



98 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Herodotus tells us that Homer and Hesiod were the 
framers of the Greek theogony. It cannot be supposed 
that the names given by Homer to the gods, were 
for the first time made known through the medium 
of his poems, or that the pedigrees of Hesiod were 
unheard of before. That Homer first described these 
persons, marked out more definitely the sphere of 
their respective authorities, and assigned to each more 
clearly their specific attributes, is highly probable ; 
and thus, without being entirely the authors, Homer 
and Hesiod may be considered the framers and 
systematizers of the popular religious belief, 

The mythology of Homer doubtless embodies those 
ideas of deity, which, in a more vague and uncertain 
form, had pervaded Greece long before, and the gene- 
rations of Hesiod are figurative personifications of the 
order of creation as imagined by some old philosophy. 
" The way," says Thirlwall, a " in which Hesiod treats 
his subject, suggests a strong suspicion that his theogony 
or cosmogony was not the fruit of his own invention ; 
and that although to us it breathes the first lispings of 
Greek philosophy, they are only the faint echoes of 
an earlier and deeper strain." 

The chief of the Olympian deities is Zeus : as he 
originally established the laws of Nature, so he con- 
stantly directs and controls all their operations. He 
rules over the rest of the gods as a king, or rather as 
the father of a royal race. His word and nod are 
law. His wisdom is surpassingly great, but his prin- 
a Thirl wall, vol. i. c. 6. 



ATTRIBUTES OF ZEUS. 99 

cipal attribute is strength rather than wisdom ; he 
is neither omniscient, omnipresent, nor all-powerful. 
He holds the balance which decides human destinies, 
but still Fate is an independent and coordinate power. 
Sometimes his will coincides with the decrees of Fate, 
sometimes he struggles in vain to resist its decisions. 
He can delay or hasten that which is preordained, 
but he cannot change it. 

Although an abstract principle, Destiny seems to 
represent the natural idea of Providence and the First 
Cause, whereas Zeus and the other deities constitute 
the personal machinery by which the fixed ordinances 
of this mysterious principle are carried into effect. 
This is the universal belief of Homer's gods and men. 
Her6 says that all which shall happen to a man is 
allotted at his birth. a Athene declares that even the 
gods are powerless to save, when Fate summons a 
man. b Poseidon determines to rescue iEneas, because 
it is fated that he shall escape, and Hector comforts 
Andromache with the assurance that no man can slay 
him until the appointed time. Zeus is subject to 
human weaknesses and wants, such as hunger and 
thirst. He "sleeps, and must be awakened." Nor 
is he free from such passions as agitate the human 
breast. He is not free from the emotions either of 
anger or desire. Limited only by Destiny, he con- 
trols the affairs of men with strict impartiality. By 
him kings rule, with justice ; the sacred rites of hos- 
pitality are under his protection. He defends the 

a II. xx. 128. b Od. iii. 237. c II. xx. 300. 

h 2 



100 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE, 

cause of the widow and the orphan ; no suppliant ad- 
dresses him in vain. He hears prayer and he especially 
punishes perjury, adultery, and the neglect of duty to 
parents, and the principal instruments of his ven- 
geance are the pestilence and the thunderbolt. 

The other deities are as inferior to him in their 
moral attributes, as they are in power. They fear 
and stand in awe of their sovereign ruler, but fre- 
quently thwart his inclinations, and endeavour to 
resist or to overreach him. Amongst themselves 
strife, and envy, and jealousy prevail, as they might 
amongst the members of an earthly court. The 
petty disputes and quarrels, the loves and caprices 
of the Olympian family constitute some of the few 
portions of the Homeric poems, in which an almost 
comic vein supersedes their grave stateliness and 
serious dignity. Zeus, supremely good and great, is 
often called upon to quell the factions and curb the 
humours of his quarrelsome courtiers, and to threaten 
expulsion from Olympus in case of disobedience to 
his will. a 

A perfect analogy is maintained between the nature 
of gods and men. As in the veins of man flows 
the principle of life, so in their veins flows the divine 
ichor, the principle of immortality, and their frames 
require the support of nectar and ambrosia, as men 
need that of earthly food. 

Although Zeus was generally the re warder and 
protector of truth and virtue, the inferior deities in 
a II. viii. 13. 



OFFICE OF THE FURIES. 101 

their intercourse with men exercised a species of 
favouritism. This led them to violate the well-known 
principles and sanctions of morality. Minerva a advises 
Pandarus to bribe Apollo to aid in the murder of 
Menelaus, and even Zeus approves the treacherous 
deed. Hence the sin of the deepest dye was not to 
offend against the immutable principles of natural 
justice, but to neglect or offend a deity ; and the sum 
and substance of religion consisted in averting their 
anger and propitiating their favour by prayer and by 
expensive offerings and sacrifices. 

The executors of vengeance on the wicked were 
the Furies, whose abode was the darkness of the 
unseen world ; they were unerring, implacable. Ac- 
cording to Hesiod, they could punish gods as well as 
men ; b and, therefore, they were as much dreaded by 
them as by mortals. 

The religion of the heroic age was free from 
any taint of idolatry. No mention is made of any 
visible representation of Deity, excepting the statue 
of Athene in the citadel of Troy. The funeral rites 
of Patroclus, however, prove that it was not un- 
polluted by that darker stain, the offering of human 
sacrifices. This, however, is reprobated by Homer, c 
and perhaps introduced as characteristic of his hero's 
fierce temper and implacable resentment. Temples 
were not common. Mention is made of the oracular 
shrine of Delphi, and in the midst of the Phseacian 
market-place stood one in honour of Poseidon. They 
a II. iv. 101. b Theog. ii. 21. c II. xxiv. 



102 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

offered sacrifices beneath the open vault of heaven, 
and, like the nations of Canaan, in high places and 
sacred groves. 

As in patriarchal ages, the patriarch was priest of 
his tribe, or family and household, so in the Homeric, 
the priestly office was united with that of the king. 
Not that we are to suppose that the kings were priests 
in the sense in which we generally understand the 
term, but that it was one of the functions of the king 
to offer sacrifice in behalf of his people. There were 
besides, priests, like Chryses, who were dedicated to 
the worship of some particular deity, and attached 
to some locality where the worship of that deity was 
established. 

Earthly and sensual in their nature although the 
Homeric deities were, still they formed a race of beings 
perfectly distinct from mortals. No notion yet pre- 
vailed of elevating a mortal to the rank of a god. 
Those of distinguished virtue might, like Hercules 
and Ganymede, be admitted into the society of the 
gods, or endowed with immortality and perpetual 
youth, as Calypso wished Odysseus to be, a but this was 
all : hero-worship had not as yet appeared in Greece. 
The first dawn of this worship appears in Hesiod, 
where the spirits of the mighty dead are spoken of 
as tutelary deities, or guardian angels, watching over 
the conduct and the fortunes of men. 

The desire of examining into futurity had not yet 
attained its highest development. Individuals, like 
a Od. v. 136. 



PROPHECY, OMENS, AND DREAMS. 103 

the seer Calchas, a were believed to be inspired by 
Apollo, and to possess the gift of prophecy. The 
oracles of Dodona and Delphi had already become 
celebrated. 5 Natural phenomena, the appearance of 
the heavenly bodies, and the flight of birds of good 
or ill omen, were considered as prognosticating future 
events ; but human energy was deemed superior to 
them all, and there was a lofty confidence felt in 
the justice and holiness of a righteous cause. " The 
best of omens is," says Hector, " to fight in one's 
country's defence." In the Homeric age, too, it 
was not customary to divine future events by exa- 
mining the entrails of the victim. Dreams were 
thought to be direct revelations from Zeus to man. 
It was thus that Agamemnon was induced to give 
battle to the Trojans, and Achilles urged to celebrate 
the funeral of Patroclus. d 

One of the most important subjects for exami- 
nation connected with religion is the belief respect- 
ing the condition of man after death. Homer 
evidently entertained some vague notion of the im- 
possibility of the soul existing in a state of activity 
unless united to some immortal body. " In the 
house of Hades," says Achilles, 6 " the soul and image 
(4*%*] *°u s'/hakov) exist, but they have no vitals (<pgwsg)." 
The blood of a slaughtered victim is the device re- 
sorted to in order to supply that bodily vigour which 

a II. i. 70. b Od. xiv. 327 ; II. ix. 404. 

c II. xii. 243. d Ibid. ii. 8 ; xxiii. 65. 

e Ibid, xxiii. 103. 



104 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

is necessary to the activity of the spiritual principle. 
The separate existence of the soul appeared to him 
to imply a sad and melancholy immortality : it was 
an unreal shade in the midst of a dark world of 
shadows. The indistinctness of his ideas causes them 
also to be inconsistent ; for, imperfect as the existence 
appears to be which he describes, yet Odysseus not 
only sees, but converses with the shades of his 
mother, Hercules, and Achilles. The very adminis- 
tration of retributive justice in the courts below, 
seems like a phantasmagoria — an unreal scene enacted 
in imitation of the realities of the visible world. In 
that system, punishment occupies a much more 
definite position than reward ; the happiness of the 
blest was but a cheerless one after all, whilst the 
tortures of the wicked are painted in language calcu- 
lated to convey lessons of terrible warning. The 
disembodied spirit could enjoy no rest in the regions 
of the invisible, until the funeral rites were per- 
formed. Hence it was that an enemy's vengeance 
pursued his foe after death, and delighted to mutilate 
the senseless corpse, and leave it a prey to dogs and 
birds ; and hence the self-abasing agony with which 
the aged Priam implores that the mangled corpse 
of his warrior son may be restored for burial. 

The form of government universal throughout 

Greece in the Homeric age was a limited hereditary 

monarchy. The monarch reigned by divine right, 

and from Zeus derived his authority . a But, never- 

a II. ii. 197; ii. 204. Theog. 96. 



FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 105 

theless, the wisdom, the personal strength, stature and 
beauty with which Homer invests monarchs, implies 
that in some way or other personal merit contributed 
much to ensure the permanent possession of the 
throne. Agamemnon is hereditary monarch of Argos, 
and the right of Telemachus to inherit his father's 
throne is recognized, yet still circumstances are con- 
sidered possible which might exclude him from it. 
" Many chieftains," he says, " there are in Ithaca, of 
whom any one might be king." 3 When the aged 
Laertes and Odysseus become unfit for the cares of 
royalty, they abdicate in favour of their more vigorous 
sons. b 

A council of state assisted the deliberations of the 
monarch. In Phseacia, the members of it are repre- 
sented as bearing, like the king himself, the title 
of fiuffikeig, or kings ; and, therefore, are in reality his 
peers. Priam's council is described as meeting at the 
gates of the palace, a custom recorded in sacred his- 
tory ; and in the same place Nestor sat to administer 
justice. On important occasions a popular assembly 
was also convened. Telemachus, for example, appeals 
to the assembled people against the lawlessness of 
the suitors; and Alcinous is represented as calling an 
assembly of the people to provide a ship and stores for 
Odysseus. In fact the governments of this age were, 
as described by Thucydides, vdirgixui ficcaiXetcci Isri prjroTg 
yzgccffi, hereditary monarchies, with defined privileges. 
The king deliberated with his council, and then referred 
* Od. i. 394. b Ibid. xi. 493. 



106 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the matter to the people. The ensign of regal power 
was a sceptre, but not a crown. One instance, and one 
alone, is mentioned by Homer, of a female sovereign. 
Andromache relates to Hector that when her father 
died, her mother became queen of Hypoplacia. a 

Laws are mentioned in the " Iliad," b but they were 
rather traditional principles (^s^iarsg) than enactments 
(voyboi). Constitutional rights were unknown. The 
liberties of the subject and the administration of 
justice depended on the wisdom of the king and his 
councillors. Murder was considered a private rather 
than a public wrong. The family of the murdered 
man pursued with vengeance the murderer, unless 
he made compensation, or fled to a foreign land. 
Sometimes the question of this compensation was 
decided by arbitration. Public wrongs were punished 
rarely, and then by the people themselves rather 
than by a public executioner; and, as amongst the 
Israelites, the usual capital punishment was stoning 
to death. 

The right of every stranger to demand the offices 
of hospitality was recognised as sacred. " Be not 
forgetful to entertain strangers," said St. Paul, d al- 
luding to the incidents of patriarchal times, " for 
thereby some have entertained angels unawares." 
And, similarly, we are told in the " Odyssey " that 
the gods sometimes visit the dwellings of mankind in 
the shape of strangers. 6 It mattered not whether he 

* II. vi. 425. b Ibid. ii. 204. c Od. xi. 493. 

d Heb. xiii. 2. e Od. vi. 208, xvii. 485. 



DOMESTIC MANNERS. 107 

was friend or foe, merchant or pirate, a if lie but asked 
the shelter of a roof it was granted, and a participa- 
tion in all that it contained, with ungrudging gene- 
rosity. No questions were asked until the unknown 
guest had received a hearty welcomed Iobates did 
not ask to see the credentials of Bellerophon until 
he had entertained him during nine days, nor did 
Nestor inquire who Telemachus and Mentor were 
until the feast was concluded, and the usual libation 
offered. 

The domestic manners of the Homeric age were 
marked by mingled refinement and barbarism, by 
moral purity, and yet by a freedom almost approach- 
ing to indelicacy, by humanity almost chivalrous, and 
a ferocity scarcely consistent with civilized life. The 
song and the dance, the notes of the lyre, the recita- 
tion of the bard, enlivened their social banquets, 
which were not disgraced by intemperance. But 
once, and that in the case of the centaur Eurytion, is 
intoxication described, and then attended with such 
fearful consequences, as plainly prove the popular 
abhorrence of the vice, and how undeserved the ex- 
pression of Horace, 

"Laudibus arguitur vini vinosus Homerus.''^ 

The tables of the great were covered with simple 
but plenteous fare, which was enjoyed by guests of 

a Od. xv. 373 j xvii. 475. 

b IL vi. 176; Od. iii. 69; Thuc. i. 5. 

c Od. xxi. 295. <* Ep. i. xix. 6. 



108 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

every rank ; the libation in honour of the gods pre- 
ceded the enjoyment of the wine-cup. 

Distinguished as Homer's heroes are for many noble 
and generous qualities, war was carried on with all 
the horrors which disgrace even barbarous tribes. In 
battle no quarter was given. The only motive which 
induced the victor to spare the life of his fallen foe, 
was the hope of obtaining ransom. Agamemnon re- 
proaches Menelaus for listening to the entreaties for 
quarter of a noble Trojan. a " Let none of them," 
he says, " escape deep destruction, no, not even the 
child in the mother's womb." " Thus he spoke," re- 
marks the poet, " and with justice, and he turned his 
brother's mind." The bodies of the slain were stripped 
and spoiled of their arms, and then insulted, mu- 
tilated, and thrown to be mangled by birds and 
dogs. 

Thus Hector spoils the dead body of Patroclus, b 
and seeks still further to gratify his savage vengeance 
by depriving his foe of that burial which was neces- 
sary for his future happiness, and giving him to be 
devoured by the dogs of Troy. And the noble- 
minded Achilles imagined that the vengeance which 
he inflicted on the body of Hector, was an offering 
of duty to his departed friend, and on this ground 
alone hesitates to restore the corpse to the mournful 
entreaties of the bereaved father. 

When a nation or a city was conquered, there was 

a II. vi. 57. b Ibid. xvii. 125. 

c Ibid. xxiv. 592. 



HORRORS OF WAR. 109 

no mercy for the vanquished." Such is the descrip- 
tion given by Priam of the evils of war, " My sons 
are slain, my daughters dragged into captivity, the 
chambers of my palace violated, the infant children 
dashed to the ground." 

The wife of Meleager b is represented as recount- 
ing to her husband the evils which fall upon those 
whose city is taken. " They slay the men, the fire 
reduces the city to ashes, others drag the women and 
children into slavery." Such was the ferocity which 
was considered not unbecoming the Homeric hero 
in war, a ferocity which marks even the rude and 
savage language which warriors habitually address to 
each other, when they meet as foemen on the field 
of battle. 

The habits and manners of the age in time of peace, 
argue an insecure state of society. Legitimate com- 
merce must have been liable to constant danger and 
interruption from the prevalence of piracy, which was 
as common as among the Norsemen and sea-kings of 
later times. As in a similar condition of society in 
modern Europe, when the right of the stranger was 
recognized, the raids of the Highland chieftain, or the 
robberies of the German baron, were deemed no dis- 
grace ; so the pirate in the Homeric age was thought 
to atone for the cruelty and injustice of his outrages 
by their brilliance and gallantry. Notwithstanding 
the protection afforded to the domestic circle by the 

* II. xxii. 60. b Ibid. ix. 590. 

c Thucyd. and Odys. 



110 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

holy ties of guest and host, and the sacred rites of 
hospitality, it was often violated by the licentious 
ravisher. Such deeds as, according to the legend, led 
to the Trojan war itself, were probably too common, 
and the rape of Helen was by no means an isolated 
event in the history of the Heroic Age. 

We meet with little to justify the belief that the 
passion of love was invested with that purity which 
belongs to the more chivalrous manners of modern 
times. The influence of Christianity alone added 
this element to mere sensual passion, in the same 
way that it first moderated the vindictiveness of the 
warrior, and produced a generous spirit of mutual 
consideration even between the bitterest enemies. 
The female sex, however, enjoyed a much higher 
position than they did in a more advanced period of 
Greek civilization. Oriental habits so far prevailed, 
that their chambers, like the Eastern harem, were 
separate from those of the men, and, as a general 
rule, the sexes lived distinct from one another, but 
the occasional intercourse between them was, to a 
certain extent, free and unrestrained. 

Helen and Andromache, in the " Iliad," and Pene- 
lope in the " Odyssey," enjoy a freedom somewhat 
approaching to that of modern times. This freedom 
implies that they were considered as the companions 
for the serious hours, and not as mere toys for the 
amusement of man's lighter moments. Hence the 
behaviour of Homer's greatest heroes towards women 
is marked by politeness and tenderness, and even by 



SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN. Ill 

a respect, which shows that they recognized and did 
homage to the moral superiority of the weaker sex. 
The delicacy with which they regarded maiden mo- 
desty, and the confidence consequently felt by woman 
in the safety of her honour, was such, that offices 
were innocently performed by women, which the 
greater refinement of modern manners would consider 
inconsistent with maidenly modesty. 

Telemachus, at the court of the Pylian monarch,* 1 
was attended at his toilet and his bath by the virgin 
Polycaste, and the same attention was offered by Pene- 
lope to Ulysses, when he returned an unknown wan- 
derer to his home. 5 

For the honourable position which women occupied, 
they were well fitted by their virtue and accomplish- 
ments. The conjugal devotion of Andromache, and 
the constancy of Penelope, were probably not mere ima- 
ginary pictures. Even those of the highest rank and 
the greatest refinement did not consider the humblest 
domestic duties unworthy. Nestor's royal spouse 
prepares his couch, and the Princess Nausicaa washes 
her clothes in the river, and tramples on them with 
her naked feet, like a Highland maiden. The mis- 
tress superintended her maidens, and engaged with 
them in their daily tasks, and then relieved her toil 
with the more elegant and graceful employment of 
the loom. 

The members of a chieftain's household were very 

a Od. iii. b Ibid. xix. 317. 

c Ibid. iii. 403. 



112 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

numerous. 3 They were slaves, generally prisoners of 
war, and were treated with kindness and considera- 
tion. Most domestic duties were performed by 
women, but the banquet was sometimes attended by 
young and pampered servitors, with glossy curls and 
fair faces. 5 

Young princes were assigned to the care of a pri- 
vate tutor, who, if we may judge from the address of 
Phoenix to Achilles, performed also the duties of a 
nurse to their young charge ; and nurses, on the other 
hand, if Euryclea is a specimen, attended on their 
foster-children even when they arrived at matu- 
rity. 

Although female captives lived with the Homeric 
heroes as concubines, and their children were treated 
as though they were legitimate, polygamy did not 
exist amongst them. Priam was an Asiatic, and had 
many wives, according to Oriental custom. Children 
did not generally marry without the consent of their 
parents. Achilles refuses to marry the daughter of 
Agamemnon, d because Peleus will give him a wife 
if he returns home in safety. In the " Odyssey," 
also, the suitors consider Penelope bound to consult 
her father, and Nausicaa blames any maiden who 
would marry contrary to her parents' will. When 
a marriage was concluded, the bridegroom gave pre- 
sents to the bride, and she, in her turn, was usually 
suitably portioned. It was not considered right that 

a Od. xxii. 441. b Ibid. xv. 30. c II. ix. 481. 
d Ibid. ix. 388. 



SCIENCE OF THE HOMERIC AGE. 113 

widows should marry whilst their children were so 
young as to require a mother s care. a 

Active in his habits, and warlike in his pursuits, 
the hero looked upon old age as burdensome, and as 
rendering him incapable of the chief enjoyments of 
life, but, nevertheless, the aged were always treated 
with the greatest respect, their experience valued, 
and their counsel sought, in circumstances of difficulty. 
The dead were lamented with dirges and wailings, the 
surviving relatives mourned in dust and ashes. b Games 
and feasts were celebrated at the funeral of departed 
heroes, their bodies were burnt upon a pile, fre- 
quently with their armour, d the ashes collected in an 
urn and buried. A mound, a stone, a tree, or, as in 
the case of Elpenor, some symbol of his pursuits 
during life, formed the simple memorial of the 
dead. e 

Science was as yet in its infancy, but although the 
Homeric poems contain but little scientific knowledge, 
they nevertheless display much careful and accurate 
observation of physical phenomena. The wonders of 
the starry heavens naturally engaged, in early times, 
the attention of the thoughtful and inquisitive mind. 
Homer had not arrived at the sublime idea which 
Job conceived, when he said, " God hangeth the earth 
upon nothing, He stretcheth the north over the empty 
space," but he saw from the coast of Asia that the 

a Od. xix. 594. b H. xviii. 24. 

c II. xxiv. ; and Od. xxiv. d II. vi. 418. 

e Od. xii. 16. 

VOL. I. I 



114 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

sun, which rose and set in the ocean, shot its first 
beams across the island of Syros in different places 
at different seasons of the year. a He observed the 
fact of the solstices, although the reason was un- 
known in his days, and he naturally described that 
island as the place where were situated the tropics 
of the sun (bQi rgoirai yjBXioio). The difference 
between stars and planets was not yet known, but 
one brilliant star, the planet Venus, from its dif- 
ferent position with relation to the sun, was de- 
nominated sometimes Hesperus, sometimes Phospho- 
rus, the morning or the evening star. That both 
these were but one planet had not yet been dis- 
covered. The fixed stars had already begun to be 
arranged in groups, but the only constellations which 
as yet had received names, were the Great Bear, which 
he describes as always turning round and watching 
the mighty hunter Orion; the Pleiads, but not the 
Bull in which they are situated ; the Hyads, Bootes, 
and Orion. Of these, the Bear alone bathes not in 
the waters of the ocean, i.e., is alone within the circle 
of perpetual apparition. Bootes he distinguishes by 
the epithet " late-setting " ( o-^l fovovra), b implying 
that this constellation scarcely sets at all ; in fact, on 
the coast of Asia Minor, only part of it ever sinks 
beneath the horizon. The brilliant track of light* 
which he describes as running by the dwelling of the 
gods, is probably the Milky Way. Orion's dog is pro- 

a Od. xv. 403. b Ibid. v. 272. 

c Ibid. vi. 45. 



GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 115 

bably Sirius, a for he speaks of its splendour in autumn, 
and its fatal influence on the health of men. The 
rainbow which he, taught by some vague traditions of 
the truth, believed to have been placed in the cloud 
by Zeus as a sign to mortals/ he personifies as the 
heavenly messenger, this idea having probably grown 
out of the notion that it was the path bridging the 
space between earth and heaven. 

The fact, of which the most practical use was then 
made, was, that when a star was visible on the hori- 
zon just before sunrise, or just after sunset, a par- 
ticular season of the year was defined. By this phe- 
nomenon the agriculturist marked the proper period 
for his regularly recurring labours, and the mariner 
was taught to avoid the perils of a stormy sea. 

Commercial intercourse had already contributed 
something to geographical knowledge ; even the man- 
ners of the northern nations were not unknown. 
Homer speaks of the Scythians, who live on milk, 
especially that of mares, and who have their house- 
holds in waggons, 

^Kvdag 'nrirr)fjid\yov£ 3 TXaKTotyaydiv, dTrrjvalg o'ikl iyovritiv, 

thus attributing to them a mode of life like those of 
the nomad Tartar tribes in modern times. The ocean c 
he believed to be a vast river, the source of all other 
streams, flowing entirely round the earth. The geo- 
graphical knowledge of Homer extends westward, 

a II. xxii. 29. b Ibid. xi. 27. 

c Ibid. xxi. 196; Od. xi. 156. 

i 2 



116 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and not to the east, or to the interior of the Asiatic 
continent; hence he was familiar with the commerce 
of Phoenicia and Sidon, but not of Tyre, for, as Sir 
I. Newton observed, the Tyrians traded in the Red 
Sea and Persian Gulf, the Sidonians in the Medi- 
terranean. 

His geographical accuracy is very remarkable. 
Each epithet in the catalogue of the ships catches 
the characteristic features of the country which it 
describes. The topography of Ithaca has been care- 
fully examined and verified by modern travellers, a 
the numerous cities and various languages of Crete b 
exactly agrees with the history of its colonization. 
Some of his apparent inaccuracies may be accounted 
for. Pharos, for example, he describes as distant a 
day's voyage from the coast ; doubtless the alluvium 
of the Nile during the lapse of centuries caused this 
distance to be diminished ; and his omitting to men- 
tion the volcanos of iEtna and Vesuvius, though he 
speaks of the Italian and Sicilian coasts, is explicable 
on the hypothesis that no eruptions had taken place 
during his memory. Surgery was the only branch 
practised of the science of medicine. Disease was 
inflicted by the vengeance of heaven, and no human 
skill was able to arrest the blow. Wounds which 
were the work of human weapons, were able to be 
treated by man. The surgeon was held in the highest 
esteem. He knew, however, only the mere rudiments 
of anatomy, and the treatment which he prescribed 
» Gell and Dodwell. b Od. xix. 172. 



ARITHMETIC OF HOMER. 117 

was very simple. The wound was dressed with herbs, 
and the haemorrhage was stopped by the rust of a 
brazen spear. 

The only notice of arithmetical science found in the 
Homeric poems is a passage in the " Odyssey," a which 
shows that as yet it had not advanced beyond the sim- 
ple plan of enumerating large sums on the fingers. 
Proteus is represented as counting his phocce by fives 
— TrtfMrdffc&rou. Evidently, therefore, the more conve- 
nient method of a decimal notation was unknown. 

Commercial intercourse with the wealthy and luxu- 
rious nations of Asia furnished the means at once for 
indulonnor and cultivating the natural taste for the 
beautiful which distinguished the Ionian race. Hence, 
although science was in its infancy, and society in an 
intermediate condition between barbarism and refine- 
ment, art, nevertheless, was in a remarkably flourishing 
state. 

In no race of mankind were the faculties of mind 
and body more harmoniously proportioned, or the ap- 
preciation of the sensible more nicely blended with 
that of the spiritual, than in the Ionian. None, there- 
fore, had greater natural capabilities, as well as greater 
external advantages for the cultivation of art. The 
Homeric poems themselves, and the place which the 
bard occupied in public estimation, are an evidence of 
their love for poetry of the highest order. The nume- 
rous speeches contained in the " Iliad" and u Odyssey" 
prove the cultivation of even the graces of oratory, 
a Od. iv. ±12. 



118 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and the practice of reciting poems to the accompani- 
ment of the harp, shows that, although the science of 
harmony was not yet understood, music as an art was 
commonly known. Musical instruments were, of 
course, very simple, and consisted of the flute or pipe 
(uvKog or <r^/y|), and the harp (^o^/yg, xtOuga). Of the 
construction of the former there is no description, 
but the latter was strung with seven strings of gut, a 
each sounding a musical note at a proper interval 
(avfju^cui/oi), and therefore, as its compass was seven 
notes, it must have been capable of producing some 
variety of harmony. 

Statuary was but little known, — sculpture in marble 
not at all, for, besides the statue of Athene at Troy, 
mention is only made of figures holding lights in the pa- 
lace of Alcinous, and dogs at the gates, executed in gold 
and silver, the work of Hephaestus. It is probable, 
therefore, that such statues as did exist were wrought 
and graven in metal. 

No traces, also, are to be found of the existence of 
painting. Colour was only used to decorate the pro- 
ductions of the inferior arts. Wools of different dyes 
were woven in patterns, or used with gold and silver 
threads in embroidering, and the figure-heads of ships 
and ivory horse-trappings were stained in crimson 
and purple. In fact, epic poetry itself created and 
developed those faculties which afterwards produced 
the higher arts of sculpture and painting. Poetry did 
not borrow from art, but art from poetry. The poet's 
a Od. xxi. 408. 



FINE AND MECHANICAL ARTS. 119 

fancy conceived ideal forms, and embodied them in 
graphic and picturesque language ; the artist realized 
these descriptions, and presented their results in a 
form to be apprehended by the external senses. Even 
in the lower mechanical arts it is scarcely possible that 
then anything existed completely corresponding with 
the Homeric descriptions ; they were founded in fact, 
and doubtless accurate enough not to strike his hearers 
as unnatural impossibilities, but they had not their 
exact counterparts. Even modern genius, with all 
the appliances of modern art, cannot realize the end- 
less variety of the Homeric shield. It must not, there- 
fore, be supposed, that ancient plastic art could exe- 
cute in all its fulness what the rich and vivid fancy of 
Homer could imagine. 

Nevertheless, it may be repeated, art flourished and 
its productions were both ingenious and beautiful. 
However much the description may have surpassed the 
reality, the poet's eye, as well as that of his hearers, 
must have been accustomed to splendour and magni- 
ficence, or else he could neither have described nor 
they have understood the palaces of Priam a and Odys- 
seus, 5 or the house and gardens of A lcinous, with all 
their rich architecture and luxurious furniture. 

It may be assumed, therefore, that the works of the 
famed Sidonian looms, said to have been imported to 
Troy by Paris, d were well known to the Greeks ; that 
furniture had somewhat of the elegance of Odysseus' 

a II. vi. 243. b Od. xxiii. c Od. vii. 86. 

d II. vi. 289. 



120 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

bed, a the tripods described in the Iliad, b and the ivory 
work spoken of in the " Odyssey." c Armour was 
richly ornamented, like that of Agamemnon and 
iEneas ; and articles of dress, both male and female, 
embroidered with tasteful designs, like that of Odys- 
seus, and that presented by Antinous to Penelope. 

Nor were the useful arts less understood than the 
ornamental. Their lands were skilfully and indus- 
triously cultivated, — they ploughed with mules and 
oxen, d and, like the Israelites, used oxen to tread out 
the corn. 6 The grain was ground in handmills by 
women, as it was in Palestine in our Saviour's days, or 
pounded with a pestle and mortar/ Polyphemus 
made cheese, and separated the curd from the whey 
by means of the acid juice of figs. 5 They melted 
metals in furnaces, and increased the heat with bel- 
lows. 11 They fished with net and line, although fish 
was not esteemed as an article of food. Their tools 
used by the shipbuilder, the wheelwright, and the 
carpenter, comprise all the common tools now in use, 
except the saw ; and, lastly, the probability is that the 
art of writing, which had long been practised by the 
most civilized nations of the East, was also to the 
Greeks not entirely unknown. 

Such were the arts of peace in the Homeric age. 
Their art of war scarcely deserves the name. There 
were no tactics, no regular line-of-battle, no evolu- 

a II. xxiii. 195. b II. X viii. 374. c Od. viii. 404. 

d II. xx. 495. e Deut. xx. 4. f II. x. 353. 

* Od. ix. 219. h II. xviii. 470. 



TACTICS AND ART OF WAR. 121 

tions by which an army could be manoeuvred as if it 
were one body. The general-in-chief was but first 
in council ; the inferior generals only chieftains, 
each of his own people. They thought more of 
prowess as soldiers, than of their skill as officers. 
They were champions provoking each other to single 
combat, and exciting the troops to bravery by their 
example, rather than directing by their experience. 

In the Homeric army chariots supplied the place of 
cavalry, and these were so small and light that Diomede 
entertained the idea of carrying off the field the cha- 
riot of Rhesus whom he had slain. It was essential 
to a chieftain to have a loud voice in order to lead 
the war-cry efficiently, hence " good in the battle- 
cry/' ciyaQog fiorjv, is a favourite epithet of the Ho- 
meric heroes. This shout seems to have been the 
only mode of cheering the troops to the onset, for 
although the trumpet is introduced in simile it is 
never made use of in a Homeric battle. a 

Military service appears to have been compulsory. 
Odysseus feigns madness, Achilles disguises himself in 
order to avoid it, and Echepolus offers a present to 
Agamemnon in order to purchase immunity. 

Their cities were strongly fortified, for in architec- 
ture, or at least in masonry, they had made great 
advances, as they had in other civil arts ; but little mili- 
tary skill was required to defend them against assail- 
ants who in engineering were rude and inexpe- 
rienced. 

a II. xviii. 219. 



122 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Their fleets consisted of transports rather than 
ships of war. They were without decks, suited only 
for coasting voyages, and were capable of containing 
from fifty to one hundred and twenty men. 2 

Such is briefly the state of society in the heroic age, 
so far as it can be discovered from the only records 
which exist, namely, the Homeric poems ; and though 
it is impossible not to be struck with the mixture of 
ferocity and urbanity, of rudeness and civilization, the 
seeds can be discovered of that preeminence which 
Greece in after ages so long maintained. 

a Thuc. i. 10. 



HOMERIC HYMNS AND MINOR POEMS. 123 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOMERIC HYMNS AND MINOR POEMS. PROOF THAT THEY ARE SPURIOUS. 

THE HYMN PRELUDES. — BATTLE OF FROGS AND MICE. MAR- 

GITES. — HESIOD. CLIMATE OF BCEOTIA AS COMPARED WITH THAT OF 

THE ASIATIC COAST. DULNESS ATTRIBUTED TO THE BOEOTIANS. — 

CAUSES OF IT. — PARALLEL DRAWN BETWEEN BC30TIA AND GERMANY. 

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE HESIODIC POETRY. THE AGE 

OF HESIOD SUBSEQUENT TO THAT OF HOMER. PROOF OF THIS FROM 

LANGUAGE, PHILOSOPHY, AND GEOGRAPHY. — IMITATIONS OF HOMER. 

— NOTICES OF HESIOD CONTAINED IN HIS WORKS. WORKS AND 

DAYS. THEOGONY. E03^. CYCLIC POETS. 

As certain hymns, which were known and admired 
in a more advanced literary period, were ascribed to 
the mythical bards, such as Olen, Orpheus, Linus, and 
Musaeus, so many minor poems consisting of hymns and 
humorous effusions, have been attributed to the author 
of the " Iliad w and the " Odyssey." The whole num- 
ber of these amounts to nearly fifty ; there are six 
longer and twenty-seven shorter hymns, besides those 
poems which, like " The Battle of the Frogs and Mice," 
are of a ludicrous and burlesque character, and a few 
short addresses to cities or private persons which have 
been entitled Epigrams. Although the genuineness 
of many of these has been supported by fair authority, 
and hymns, termed Homeric, are sometimes spoken 
of by ancient writers — and even the careful Thucy- 



124 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

dides 8 quotes a passage from the " Hymn to Apollo," as 
if it were a Homeric production — there is no doubt 
that they are spurious. 

They were not admitted as genuine by the Alexan- 
drian grammarians ; their spirit and style bear no 
closer resemblance to those of the authentic poems than 
might have been attained by a school of admirers and 
imitators. There is nothing in the "Iliad" and 
" Odyssey" exactly parallel to them, except the song 
of Demodocus, which may have been an interpolation. 
In the hymn quoted by Thucydides, Homer is made to 
speak of himself, which is directly opposed to the 
purely objective spirit of his poetry. Words occur in 
the minor poems, such as \vgu b for a harp, hXrog for 
a writing tablet, and 7r\£zrgov, d an instrument for play- 
ing on the lyre, which are not found in the " Iliad " or 
" Odyssey," and which argue a different period of art. 

Strabo e tells us that Homer never applies the name 
of Samos to the island properly so called, but only to 
Cephallenia and Samothrace ; but the Samos, on the 
Ionian coast, is mentioned in the " Hymn to Apollo." 
Cnidus, also, which is there spoken of, was not founded 
in the time of Homer. 

Whoever were the authors of the Homeric hymns 
and minor poems, or to whatever age they belong, it is 
not improbable that the popular admiration excited in 
favour of Homer in the time of Pisistratus, led to an 
unfounded claim being made in their favour. 

a Thuc. iii. 104. b " Hymn to Apollo." c Batrach. v. 3. 

d " Hymn to Apollo," 185. e Strabo x. 457 ; Mure, ii. 320. 



MINOR HOMERIC POEMS. 125 

From the title of Prooemia, or preludes, given them 
by the ancients, they had, doubtless, been usually sung 
by the bards and rhapsodists, as introductions to their 
recitations of the true Homeric poems ; it is therefore 
easy to conceive how the belief might have rapidly 
arisen that they were the works of the same author. 

Of the mock-heroic and ludicrous poems, the " Ba- 
trachomyomachia," or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, 
and the " Margites," are the most celebrated. The 
first of these is a parody of the " Iliad," and has been 
ascribed, without sufficient foundation, to a humorous 
poet named Pigres ; but the free and bold attacks con- 
tained in it on the popular mythology, and the satiric 
spirit, almost like that of Aristophanes, which pervades 
the whole, points to an age of philosophical scepti- 
cism for the period of its composition, and to some 
Athenian wit for its author. The " Margites " is a 
personal satire, and therefore it is utterly inconceiv- 
able that a production should have belonged to the 
heroic age which, according to all the acknowledged 
facts and principles of literary history, marks an age 
when manners and habits have become artificial ; when 
poetical inspiration has lost its freshness, and the 
critical powers of the human mind have become sharp- 
ened and matured. 

Hesiod. 

From its sunny father-land in Ionia, epic poetry now 
migrated to a severer climate ; its new home was 
Ascra, in the mountainous regions of Boeotia. The 



126 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

founder of the new school of poetry was Hesiod ; by 
descent he was an Asiatic Greek, for his father was a 
native of Cyma, an iEolian town, not far from Smyrna. 
Commercial pursuits led him to take up his abode in 
Boeotia: life there was evidently a hard struggle. 
The care of making provision for the daily wants of 
life, whether by commerce or agriculture, pressed hea- 
vily upon the inhabitants : poverty and necessity pro- 
duced a deadening effect upon their genius. The 
Boeotians had not the sensibility of the Ionian Greek, 
the epigrammatic terseness and shrewd moral discern- 
ment of the Dorian, or the elegant taste of the Athe- 
nian. This fact, though universally admitted, was 
generally attributed to the effect produced by the 
atmosphere upon the human mind ; it was considered 
thick and heavy, weighing down the spirits, and adverse 
to liveliness and brilliance of imagination. The same 
effect was also attributed to the atmosphere of other 
mountainous regions, such as Arcadia and Acarnania ; 
and it is probable that narrow circumstances, and the 
difficulty of gaining subsistence, exercised the same in- 
fluence upon the Arcadian and Acarnanian mind which 
it did upon the Boeotian. That, to the poet accus- 
tomed in his earlier years to the softness of an Asiatic 
clime, that of Boeotia appeared rough and ungenial, 
is plain from his powerful description of winter, 3 and 
from the expressions which he uses with regard to his 
adopted home. " Ascra," he says, " is bad in winter, 
unpleasant in summer;" 5 and if the poetry of 
a Works and Days, 501. b Ibid. 640. 



CHARACTER AND OBJECT OF HESIODIC POETRY. 127 

Homer is compared with that of Hesiod, it seems as 
though the former poet scarcely knew what winter 
was, whilst the latter speaks of its severity in lan- 
guage almost as strong as would be used by one accus- 
tomed to the winters of England or of Germany. 

The same sadness and gloom which distinguishes 
the climate of Ascra from that of the coast of Asia, 
marks the poetry of Hesiod. The romantic ideal of 
the heroic age, the regal splendour, the oriental 
luxury, give place to the stern realities of common 
life and daily duty. His description of the lot of 
humanity is less brilliant, but more true. He feels, 
from sad experience, that man is born to trouble. He 
laments that the age in which he lives is one of iron. 
The anger of the gods has inflicted upon him a daily 
routine of toil and sorrow. The gifts of nature are 
sparingly and grudgingly afforded. The human race 
has become morally degenerate, as the soil which he 
inhabits has become physically inferior. 

Impressed with a seuse of these social evils, the 
object of the Hesiodic poetry is to apply a remedy, 
its scope and purpose is didactic and moral. He la- 
bours, therefore, to instruct his hearers in commerce, 
and especially in agriculture. He brings to bear upon 
the precepts which he enforces, all his own knowledge 
and personal experience respecting the nature of the 
soil and climate ; and so judicious are his rules and 
instructions, — so well adapted to the circumstances of 
the locality, that modern travellers in Greece inform 
us, that the agricultural principles laid down by He- 



128 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

siod are still recognised and observed by the descend- 
ants of those to whom he addressed them. a 

It appears somewhat strange, that Greek legend 
should have placed the favourite haunts of the Muses 
in Boeotia, a country rich, indeed, and fertile, but 
inhabited by a race of men devoted to rude, hard 
agricultural labour, and having the unenviable repu- 
tation of dullness rather than of poetic talent. It 
has been remarked, that, in this district of Greece, 
Phoenician names are very prevalent ; whatever, there- 
fore, is the credibility of the story respecting Hesiod's 
settlement there, it is most probable that at some 
time or other, there took place a migration of Eastern 
civilization, and with it, of poetical inspiration. But 
though Boeotia became the residence of poets, poetry 
did not take deep and permanent root there. The 
list of Boeotian poets is but a short one : it comprizes 
but the names of Hesiod, Pindar, and Corinna. 

But, perhaps, although Boeotia was not fruitful in 
poets, the want of genius attributed to it was exag- 
gerated. There was, probably, a difference of national 
talent between the Boeotians and the other Greeks, 
rather than an absence of it. If so, it is natural to 
expect that the lively imagination of the Athenians, 
with whom the calumny originated, could not under- 
stand or appreciate a character of intellect totally 
different from their own. If the intellect of the 
Boeotian was grave and solid, it may have been too 
profound for the vivacity of an Athenian to value it 
a Ampere, p. 34. 



BCEOTIA AND GERMANY COMPARED. 129 

as it deserved. A modern German a has discovered a 
physical resemblance between the plain country of 
Bceotia and his own native country. May there not, 
therefore, exist also a moral resemblance between the 
inhabitants ? The German character is distinguished 
by a thoughtful gravity, which livelier imaginations 
often mistake for dulness and heaviness. It was long 
before the rest of Europe valued as they deserved 
either their painting, their music, or their poetry ; 
but now no one doubts of their excellence and their 
pure classical taste, although their characteristics dif- 
fer from those of the painting, music, and poetry of 
the rest of the world. 

The epic of Hesiod, except so far as its dialect and 
hexametrical form is concerned, is totally different 
from that of Homer. The latter is heroic and 
mythic. His plots exhibit a complete plan, tending 
to one great end, and aiming at poetical unity. His 
characters are all in all ; they are called into exist- 
ence, as it were, by a creative power of the poet's 
mind, which seems totally unconscious of its own ex- 
istence ; it is scarcely a narrative, it is almost a drama 
of action, and hence, Homer has been called the 
Father of Tragedy. The poetry of Hesiod is rather 
didactic and ethical. There is no convergence of the 
whole interest on one point, — no attempt to make all 
the parts tend to bring about one great catastrophe. 
The poet speaks in his own person, and his existence 
is always kept before the reader's eyes. His subjects, 

a Ulrichs. 

VOL. I. K 



130 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

too, »are of a totally different kind from those of 
Homer, and the treatment of them is simple, calm, 
without enthusiasm, without the ornament of that 
glorious imagery which elevates the thoughts above 
this e very-day world. 

The object of Hesiod is, as that of every poet ought 
to be, to elevate and purify the feelings ; a but he en- 
deavours to effect this object, not by scenes which 
speak to the passions, or the sympathies, but by teach- 
ing us that we are men and not of heroic mould ; 
that we are subject to the influence of the gods; 
that to them we must look with religious reverence 
and awe ; that the lot of man is to labour, and that 
his sphere of duty is in the routine of ordinary life. 
Forming a humble estimate of man's condition, he 
considers a dependence upon the gods as more be- 
coming to him than self-reliance. Together with the 
spirit and sentiment of religious awe, which pervades 
his principal poem, are plentifully intermingled moral 
truths, uncompromisingly stated, and maxims full of 
practical wisdom, and accurate observation of the 
human heart, and calculated to elevate human nature 
and to improve man's social condition. 

In determining the age of Hesiod, there is no more 
light to guide the inquirer than there is in the case 
of Homer. Herodotus believes them to have been 
contemporaries, and the chronological investigations 
of Sir Isaac Newton led him to adopt a similar con- 
clusion, and to fix their era about B.C. 870. Cicero 5 
a Aristot. Poet. b De Senect. 



AGE OF HESIOD. 131 

considers Homer the older of the two, and Clinton* 
believes him to have flourished about a century after 
Homer, and four hundred years before Herodotus. 
Many considerations, drawn from the internal evi- 
dence of the Hesiodic poems, tend to establish the be- 
lief, that the age of Hesiod was subsequent, although 
not far removed from that of Homer. Differences 
in language, new ideas on philosophical subjects, a 
wider range of geographical knowledge, point to a later 
and more mature period, and many passages of Hesiod 
are manifest imitations of the Homeric poetry. 

02^/j, for example, is always used by Homer, to 
signify law, and the more modern term vmog never 
has this meaning; whilst Hesiod, in two passages, b 
makes use of vopog to express this idea. Eros, or 
Love, is not mentioned by Homer, but in the poems 
of Hesiod the word occurs in the sense in which it 
is used by the earliest mythical philosophers, as a 
primaeval cause of the universe. The views respecting a 
future state are better defined by Hesiod, and are of a 
less gloomy and melancholy character. The month 
is divided into three portions or decades, a practice 
which, as is well known, was adopted by the Athenians. 
The river Eridanus, c as also the Ister and the Phasis, 
are mentioned by Hesiod ; and the river of Egypt is 
by Homer termed iEgyptus, — by Hesiod, the Nile. 

Many passages might be cited from the works of 
Hesiod which are imitations of Homer. The descrip- 

a Fasti Hellenici, i. 381. b Works and Days, 276, Theog. 66. 
c Theog. 338. 

k2 



132 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tion of the Happy Islands given to Menelaus, by Pro- 
teus, has its counterpart in the " Works and Days ; " a 
the " Shield of Heracles " is a copy, though an inferior 
one, of that of Achilles ; sometimes the same inci- 
dents are introduced. The marriage rites and the fes- 
tive banquet b are represented on both ; on both the 
women assist in the defence of a besieged city. c In 
the description of the Chimaera, Hesiod borrows two 
lines, word for word, from the " Iliad." d Hesiod's 
" War of the Titans," and Homer's " Battle of the 
Gods," are so parallel that one must be an imitation 
of the other, and here two lines are exactly alike? 
with the exception of a single word. Hesiod says 
of a poet, " his voice flows sweet " (yXvzegr/ pki avirj) ; 
Homer, of an orator, " his voice flowed sweeter 
than honey " ((jusXtrog yXvziav pkv av&fj). The dignity 
of Hesiod's Zeus is, as it were, a reflection from 
the awful majesty which invests the Father of Gods 
in the " Iliad." Hesiod borrows a thought from 
Homer, and amplifies and exaggerates, as, for ex- 
ample, when he makes the anvil occupy nine days 
in falling from heaven to earth, whilst Homer's 
Hephaestus falls in one day from Olympus to Lemnos, 

as our own Milton says : — 

From morn 
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 
Dropt from the zenith, like a fallen star 
On Lemnos, the JEgean isle. 

a Works and Days, 168. b Hes. Shield, 273 ; II. xviii. 491. 
c Shield, 242 ; II. xviii. 514. d II. vi. 181 ; Theog. 323. 



LIFE OF HESIOD. 133 

The works of Hesiod are our only sure guide to 
the history of his life, and to the circumstances of 
his native country. 

Boeotia had originally been a country of heroic 
legends, the race of the Theban Cadmus had furnished 
many a lay, and many a warlike tradition; but its 
subsequent inhabitants, the iEolic Boeotians, w r ere a 
rural, pastoral race, without the chivalrous spirit of 
the warrior, absorbed, as has been already stated, 
in the cares of life, and in providing for their daily 
necessities. 

A native a of the obscure mountain village of 
Ascra, the child of a humble emigrant, was watching 
his father's flock at the foot of Mount Helicon. 
Whilst thus engaged the Muses appeared to him, 
conferred on him the gift of poetical inspiration, 
together with a wand of laurel, as symbolical of his 
new profession. At the funeral of Amphidamas of 
Chalcis he entered the lists with other poets, and 
was successful. His prize he dedicated to his divine 
patronesses. b His brother, Perses, defrauded him of 
his inheritance, but, afterwards reduced to poverty, 
was obliged to sue for pardon and assistance from 
the brother whom he injured. This is all that he 
tells us respecting himself. The pretended lives which 
are extant are evidently fabulous and legendary; 
but although so little is known, it is highly probable 
that Hesiod was a real person, that there was a 
Boeotian poet of that name, and that he was the 
3 Theog. 20 ; Works and Days, 650. b Ibid. 27. 



134 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

author of some of the poems now attributed to him. 
The only work which, with the exception of interpo- 
lated passages, has universally and without dispute 
been attributed to him is the "Works and Days" 
( v Efya*a/ 'H^a/). Its leading subject is the various 
occupations and duties of life, in its several relations, 
with a conclusion consisting of a calendar for the use 
of agriculturists and navigators, and a number of 
cautions principally against the violation of common 
decency. It is probable, therefore, that the original 
title was simply ''E^ya, and that the calendar was added 
sometime subsequently, and the title then altered 
to suit this addition. The unconnected nature of 
Hesiod's poetry, and the absence of a regular plot, 
easily admits of interpolation and additions. 

The "Theogony" contains a history of the origin 
of the world, and the genealogies of the gods. It 
is an important and interesting work, because He- 
rodotus ascribes to Hesiod, conjointly with Homer, 
the settlement of the Greek theogony. But although 
Aristarchus, the Alexandrian grammarian, considered 
it genuine, this was not the opinion of the Boeotians 
themselves. On his system of the universe were 
built up many theories of the Greek physical philo- 
sophers, who imagined they saw in them the germ 
of all their speculations. Homer's simple idea of 
creation contains no physical philosophy, a which makes 
it probable, as was stated before, that the Hesiodic 
poem belongs to an age subsequent to that of Homer, 
a II. xiv. 200. 



PRINCIPAL HESIODIC POEMS. 135 

ail age farther advanced in philosophical studies. 
The conclusion of this poem is a catalogue of heroes, 
born of mortal mothers to the deities of Olympus. 
This forms the connecting link between the "Theogony" 
and the " Eoese," which is a history of the favourites 
of the gods, who thus became the mothers of heroes. 
Its title is derived from two Greek words r\ or/j (" or 
such as were' 1 ), a formula with which many of 
the descriptions are introduced. 

The " Ecese " has been by some considered as the 
same with another Hesiodic poem, entitled " The 
Catalogues of Women," but the probability is, that 
the scope of the latter was more extensive than that 
of the former, comprehending the genealogies not 
only of the favourites of heaven, but of other cele- 
brated women of the heroic age. The " Shield of 
Heracles " has generally been considered as either 
wholly or in part genuine, but it is almost certain 
that the introductory verses originally formed part 
of the " Ecei-e." 

Such are the principal Hesiodic poems, of which 
there are many, and they constitute, perhaps, the 
oldest specimens of what has been termed the gnomic 
and genealogical epics of Greek literature. 

A brief notice only is necessary of the remaining 
poets, which were comprised in the so-called Epic 
Cycle. This title was given to a collection of the 
epic writers made by the Alexandrian grammarians, 
in the second century before the Christian era. They 
comprised the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," and all those 



136 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

epic poems which were of the Homeric form, as 
contrasted with those which were composed after 
the Hesiodic mould. The principal writers of this 
school were Arctinus of Miletus, Lesches of Lesbos, 
Agias of Troezen, Eumelus of Corinth, Stasinus of 
Cyprus, and Eugammon of Cyrene. The number of 
epics belonging to this cycle, which are no longer 
extant, amounts to thirty. Of these, five related 
to the war of Troy ; one to the return of the chiefs 
after that expedition ; one, the Telegonia, was a con- 
tinuation of the " Odyssey ;" the subjects of two were 
Theban history, and two celebrated the exploits of 
Hercules. The title, therefore, of cyclic poet by no 
means originally implied any disparagement, but after- 
wards it was used to designate the inferior poets of 
this class, to the exclusion of the Homeric poems ; 
and hence the use of the term by Horace in his 
satirical description of an inferior poet. a 

a Art. Poet. 136. 



ELEGIAC AND IAMBIC POETRY. 137 



CHAPTER IX. 

ELEGIES AND IAMBICS THE LITERATURE OF FREE INSTITUTIONS. 

ELEGY SOFT AS WELL AS PATRIOTIC, — ITS MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT. 

ITS METRE COMPARED WITH THE EPIC. CALLINUS. TTRT^US. — 

ARCHILOCHUS. — SIMONIDES. MIMNERMUS. SOLON.— * THEOGNIS. 

XENOPHANES OF ELEA. PHOCYLIDES. IAMBICS. — ARCHILOCHUS OF 

PAROS. — HE INVENTED THE EPODE. SIMONIDES OF AMORGOS AND 

SOLON. HIPPONAX. CHOLIAMBIC METRE. HESIOD's FABLE THE 

OLDEST. — ARCHILOCHUS AND STESICHORUS. — .ffiSOP HIS LIFE. 

Such was the poetry — in fact the only literature 
— of the age distinguished by the monarchical prin- 
ciple ; an age in which, although the duties of the 
sovereign as the father and pastor of his people in 
peace and their leader in war were strictly limited and 
defined, still his divine right and his god-like authority 
were devoutly acknowledged. But the rise of freer 
institutions gave birth to freer expressions of thoughts 
and developed a new kind of poetical literature — 
the Elegiac and the Iambic. These, like the epic of 
Homer, owe their origin to the lively spirit and 
susceptible imagination of Ionian poets, natives of 
Asia Minor and the adjacent archipelago. 

The original signification of the word elegy, was 
the same as that in which it is used in modern times. 
Whether its etymology is, as has been supposed, 



138 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

from g g Xsyg/v, it originally signified a song of sorrow ; 
but afterwards it was applied to all strains, whether 
of joy or sorrow, which were composed in the metre 
at first devoted to the voice of lamentation. Cheer- 
fulness, for example, mingles with mourning in the 
elegies of Archilochus of Paros, a the inventor of the 
iambic verse and of personal satire; narratives of 
political struggles, expressed in the language of a 
patriotic and martial spirit, unite with strains of sor- 
row and commiseration for the subjugation of Ionia 
to the Lydian satrap, in those of Mimnermus ; b 
whom Horace c praises even above his admired Cal- 
limachus, as the first of elegiac poets. 

There can be no doubt that although commerce 
had brought to Greece a greater love of independence, 
it had also brought with it in its train a love of luxury 
and greater softness of character. The growth of 
national independence and of free institutions had 
led the poet to forsake the celebration of some great 
chieftain's ancestors, and the enlivening his banquet 
by recording the heroic exploits of his family, and 
the genealogy of his race ; and to substitute re- 
grets for lost national glory, or gratulations on the 
rising freedom of his father-land. Still his strains 
were poured forth, not only in the language of pa- 
triotism, but in the plaintive accents of the softer 
passions. 

The musical accompaniment was in accordance with 
this new species of poetry. No longer did the bard 
a b.c. 720. b b. c. 594, c Horace, Bp. n. ii. 100. 



MUSIC AND MEASURE OF ELEGY. 139 

sweep the heart-stirring chords of the harp, but the 
soft notes of the Phrygian flute imitated the emotions 
of the elegiac poet. 

The metre which he adopted differed from that of 
the epic poetry. In the latter the same measure 
recurred in every line throughout the whole poem ; 
and thus the narrative could be continued, until com- 
plete, without break or interruption. In the former, 
a shorter line was subjoined to the old epic hexa- 
meter, and thus formed a couplet, at the termination 
of which the thought expressed might naturally be 
brought to a close. 

How the deviation of the .second line of the elegiac 
stanza from the heroic hexameter was first suggested 
to the ear, or why the poet deemed it more suitable 
to express his new state of feeling, it is difficult to 
say. It seems, however, to have been the first tran- 
sition from the continuous rhythm to the periodic 
in poetry; a sign of an advance in the art, although 
not in the natural inspiration of poetry. A change 
analogous to this is observable in the Greek prose 
writing, from the loose style (Xsg/V eigopipq) of the 
Ionic historian, Herodotus, to the periodic style (Xsf;/V 
Kursffrgupffiipfj) of the Attic Thucydides. 

From this peculiarity in the elegiac metre, it 
was used in monumental and other inscriptions 
(IwygdiAfAuroi) wherever brevity of expression required 
terseness and conciseness: and hence the term epi- 
gram has been since applied to all poetical compo- 
sitions the characteristic of which is that the thoughts 



140 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

are expressed briefly and pointedly. As the earliest 
idea of the epigram was simply that of an inscription, 
brevity, neatness, elegance, and the seizing in a few 
words all the characteristic features of the thing 
described, were all that was required. It was reserved 
for later times to add the condition of an unexpected 
turn of thought and expression. 

The first of the elegiac poets, and the inventor of 
the metre, was Callinus, of Ephesus. a He flourished 
during the period in which the Cimmerian hordes 
invaded Asia Minor and destroyed Magnesia ; b and 
again, after an interval of nearly fifty years, took 
Sardis, and attacked the # poet's native city. c Hence 
his poetry breathes a warlike and patriotic spirit. 
He exhorts his countrymen to break the enervating 
chains of oriental luxury, and to resist the inroads 
of their barbarian enemy. But one specimen of his 
poetry has been preserved by Stobseus ; and even of 
this Muller d doubts whether the conclusion may not 
be part of a poem by his contemporary, Tyrtgeus. 

The age of Tyrtseus is synchronous with the second 
Messenian war, and the usual date ascribed to this 
war (b.c. 685). Tradition reports that he was a lame 
schoolmaster of Athens; 6 that the Spartans were 
commanded, by an oracle, to seek a leader from the 
Athenians; and that they, in mockery, sent Tyrtseus. 
Matthise thinks that the designation, schoolmaster, 

a Gaisford's Poetae Minores, i. 426. *> b.c. 727. 

c About b.c. 678. d Muller, p. 110. 

e Matthise, History of Literature. 



TYRTiEUS, ARCHILOCHUS, AND SIMONIDES. 141 

arose from his profession being that of a rhapsodist. 
However this may be, that which Athens intended 
as mockery proved the safety of Sparta; for the 
animating strains of the lame bard— his urgent appeals 
to the love of country — his descriptions of firmness 
and resolution in the field — his enlivening anapaests 
(e^&ocr^ioc fizkn) to cheer and encourage the troops on 
their long and dreary marches — produced a striking 
effect upon the true-hearted Spartans, and contributed 
more to victory than the profoundest tactics of a 
skilful general w T ould have done. 

Nor were his political admonitions in his " Eunomia" 
less valuable, at a period when the old Dorian aristo- 
cratic institutions of Sparta were menaced by some 
of her own citizens, who, discontented at the devas- 
tation of their estates in Messenia by the insurgents, 
were demanding an agrarian law. a 

The poetry of Archilochus of Paros, and Simonides 
of Amorgos, was of two kinds — iambic and elegiac. 
At present we will confine our attention to the latter 
only. Archilochus is commonly said to have lived 
about B. c. 720, b and Suidas places the date of 
Simonides about b. c. 780 ; but it is more probable 
that the date assigned by Eusebius to Simonides 
(b.c. 664) is the correct one, and that Archilochus 
was his contemporary. Respecting the subjects 
treated of in the elegies of Simonides, nothing is 
known. Those of Archilochus (although some are 
melancholy) are the earliest specimens extant of the 
a Plutarch. b Matthiae. 



142 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

symposiac kind. Their subjects are those which are 
in modern times called Anacreontic, and celebrate the 
delights of wine and revelry. They mark the decay 
of a warlike and patriotic spirit in the Asiatic Ionian 
race, the growing softness of manners derived from 
their oriental neighbours, destined first to corrupt and 
debase them, and then to deprive them of their 
independence. 

In the latter part of the seventh century before 
the Christian sera, flourished Mimnermus of Smyrna. 
In his days the sad catastrophe fell upon Ionia, a Gyges 
took Colophon, and Smyrna surrendered to the arms 
of Halyattes. The old twofold nature of the elegy, 
that of sad pathos and warlike spirit, mingled well 
in the strains of Mimnermus. He bewailed that the 
native independence of Ionia was now lost, her sun 
set, her military glory ruined, as it seemed, for ever, 
and yet there burst forth strains of enthusiasm when 
he speaks of the bygone valour and ancient exploits 
of his degenerate countrymen. 

Both before and after the legislative measures of 
Solon, which rendered his archonship, in B. c. 594, so 
celebrated, this great lawgiver distinguished himself 
as an elegiac poet. The fragments of his poetry 
which are extant, consist chiefly of maxims (yvapou) 
both moral and poetical, and hence he is considered 
one of the gnomic poets. In them are found noble 
thoughts on the use and abuse of riches, such as we 
might expect from one who, like him, sympathised 
a Herod, i. 16. 



EXPEDITION AGAINST THE MBGARIANS. 143 

with the sorrows of the poor, and one great object 
of whose legislature was to relieve them from the 
grinding oppression of the wealthier classes. 

Another object to which he devoted his muse was 
the recovery of Salami s from the Megaiians. and. on 
this occasion, tradition furnishes us with an example 
of the power of song upon the susceptible Athenians. 
Habited as an herald, and feigning frenzy., which was 
then considered akin to inspiration, he recited an 
appeal to the sympathies of the assembled people in 
behalf of that beautiful island. The enthusiasm thus 
kindled, spread far and wide, and with one voice an 
expedition was voted against the Megaiians, which 
was successful in wresting Salamis from their power. 

We learn from an inscription on a tripod, preserved 
by Fansanias,* that Echembrotus. an Arcadian, sang 
elegies to the accompaniment of the flute at the 
Pythian games, b. c. 586, and on that occasion the 
prize was awarded to him. But the substitution of 
singing with a musical accompaniment for simple 
recitation., was considered unsuited to the solemnity 
of the festival, and was consequently forbidden. 

The Dorian ~ colonies in Sicily were numerous 
and celebrated in verv early times, and in that island 
Ifegara in Attica founded a colony bearing the same 
name, which appears to have kept up continual com- 
munication with the parent state. Theognis was a 
native of the Sicilian liegara, but resided at the 
Attic city, and took a deep and personal interest 
1 Paus. x. 7. 3. Muller's Dorians, i. «3. 10. 



144 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

in the political convulsions which disturbed Greece 
during the sera of the Tyrants. He was the poet 
of the old aristocracy of birth, which was now begin- 
ning to crumble away before the growing power of 
the wealthier commons, led by some popular and 
influential citizen, who was commonly called in Greece 
a tyrant (rvgavvos). 

The Dorian gvggItkz, or public tables, which had 
their most perfect development in the leading Dorian 
state of Sparta, and which, like all their other na- 
tional institutions, were attributed to Lycurgus, were 
social bonds of union, which kept up the old here- 
ditary aristocratic feeling amongst the members of 
them. We can easily conceive the influence and 
popularity of such elegies as those of Theognis if sung 
at these friendly meetings. They would produce an 
effect similar to that of our after-dinner speeches, and 
songs expressive of party-feeling delivered and sung 
at the political reunions of our own day. Theognis 
flourished about B. c. 548, and more fragments are 
extant of his elegies than of any other elegiac poet. 

The elegies of Kenophanes of Elea, the founder of 
the Eleatic school of philosophy, who flourished about 
B. c. 540, were also suited to be sung at public enter- 
tainments. His contemporary, Phocylides of Miletus, 
is said, by Miiller, 3 to have written principally in hexa- 
meters, but Matthiae 5 considers the Troi^oc vovQztizov, in 
that metre which bears his name, to have been 

a Miiller, p. 120. 

b Matthise, History of Literature, part i. (ee). 



PHOCYLIDES, ARCHILOCHUS. 145 

spurious, and the work of some Christian author. 
All his compositions are introduced by the words, 
" And this, too, is Phocylides's." One epigrammatic 
and paradoxical distich preserved, has been wittily 
paraphrased by our own Porson. a 

Kcu rode <f>(i)icv\id£<x>' AepioL kclkol' ovk 6 [lev, og & ov, 
TLdvTEQ Tr\rjv UpoKXeovg, ical UpoKXerjg Aeptoc. 

" This, too, is Phocylides's ; the Lerians are rogues, not one a 
rogue and another not, but all except Procles, and Procles is a 
Lerian." 

The Germans in Greek 
Are sadly to seek : 
Not five in five score, 
But ninety-five more, 
All but friend Hermann ; 
And Hermann's a German. 

Contemporary with the invention of the elegy was 
that of iambic poetry by Archilochus of Paros. The 
head-quarters of the mystical worship of Demeter (the 
Roman Ceres) was at Eleusis, but the epic hymn to 
Demeter informs us that the place next in importance, 
where her mysteries were celebrated, was Paros, of 
which Archilochus was a native. The worship of 
Demeter was nearly allied to that of Dionysus, and, 
like it, gave full scope to the initiated to indulge in 
frolic jest, and bantering raillery. 

Now, one characteristic of the iambic metre, as 
opposed to the stateliness of the epic and the epi- 
grammatic terseness of elegiac verse, is rapidity. It 
is evidently well suited to express the quickness of 
a Gaisford, Poetse Minores, fr. 5. 

VOL. I. L 



146 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

repartee, and the sharpness of satire. Moreover, its 
facility and the similarity of its rhythm to that of 
conversational prose, rendered it suitable for giving 
utterance to effusions which were originally, and 
probably still continued to be in some instances, ex- 
temporaneous. 

The expressions of Horace, 

" Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo ;" 

and again, 

" In celeres iambos misit furentem," 

as well as that of Cicero, " Archilochia edicta," a 
recognize the object and adaptation of this metre, 
and hence the very word passed into. a proverb, for 
to rail at any one was expressed in Greek by the 
word la^tZ^iv. With regard to the etymology 
of the word, it is probably, like elegy, one of those 
which were derived from sound, that its root is the 
shout of joy if}, just as aidZpiv is from a/, ororvfyiv 
from ororoi, and so forth. 

The iambic metre, as is evident from its forming 
one of the two elements of the Attic drama, was 
as peculiarly belonging to the Ionian race, as the 
lyric or choral poetry belonged to the Dorian. 

Archilochus himself was an Ionian Greek, and 
either he himself, or his father, Telesicles, was the 
leader of a colony to Thasos. His ancestors had held 
the priesthood of Demeter, and were therefore nobles. 
He nourished about b. c. 720, and, consequently, was 
one of the oldest of the Ionian poets. 
a Ep.ad Att. ii. 21. 



INVENTOR OF THE EPODOS. 147 

The admiration with which Archilochus was re- 
garded by the ancients, both Greek and Roman, 
proves that his poems could not have conveyed mere 
licentious raillery. When we find Plato a speaking 
of him as the wisest of poets, Horace b professing to 
imitate him, and Quinctilian eulogising his brief 
yet thrilling sentences {breves vibrantesque sententice), 
full of life and vigour, we can scarcely doubt the 
truthfulness as well as the power of his satire. 

When we speak of Archilochus as an iambic poet, 
it must not be supposed that his poetical effusions 
were either entirely, or even chiefly, confined to that 
metre. His name is connected with it as its in- 
ventor, and as the poet who applied it to an especial 
purpose, that of personal satire ; but the vast number 
of metres in which his poems are written, show that 
Greek metre had already attained that variety which 
rendered it capable of expressing every conceivable 
feeling and emotion. 

Besides employing all the existing metres, he was 
also the inventor of the kvcfioQ, a metre imitated 
by Horace in that book of his " Odes " which is dis- 
tinguished by this title. The epode is a short verse 
subjoined to a longer one. Whether the poet had 
any object in view in introducing this metre beyond 
mere variety, it is impossible to determine ; but al- 
though we cannot, the delicately attuned ear of the 
Greek might probably have recognized a peculiar 

a Plato, Republ. ii. 365. b Horace, Ep. i. xix. 23. 

c Quinct. x. 1 § 60. 

l 2 



148 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

appropriateness to the subject treated in this metrical 
combination. 

Simonides of Amorgos, and Solon, were also iambic 
poets. A specimen of the iambics of the former 
is preserved by Stobseus ; and some fragments of 
Solon's in Gaisford's collection. 5 * 

Simonides of Amorgos must be carefully distin- 
guished from the celebrated lyric poet of that name. 
They have often been confounded one with the other, 
both in ancient and modern times, and their poems 
have been mixed indiscriminately in one collection. 
It is not, however, difficult to separate them, for 
the probability is, that only the iambic fragments 
belong to Simonides of Amorgos, and that almost 
all the lyric and the elegiac verses are the productions 
of the Cean poet. His poems were of two kinds, 
gnomic and satirical, and the bitter irony which dis- 
tinguishes the latter, is fully equalled by the know- 
ledge of human nature which marks the former. Of 
the latter, the most celebrated is his satire on woman. 
In it he represents the various shades of female cha- 
racter by the following allegories : — 1. The swine ; 
2. the fox ; 3. the dog ; 4. the earth ; 5. the sea ; 
6. the ass ; 7, the weasel ; 8. the mare ; 9. the ape ; 
10. the bee, Suidas b informs us that he was a na- 
tive of Samos, and the leader of a colony to Amorgos, 
one of the Cyclades, where he founded three cities. 
The period at which he flourished was most probably 
about 01. xxix. B.C. 665 or B.C. 662. c 
a Gaisford, No. 28. b Suid. s. v. c Clint. Fest. Hell, in annis. 



ORIGIN OF GREEK FABLE. 149 

In a philological point of view, the fragments of 
Simonides are invaluable as specimens of the Ionic 
dialect in its oldest form. 

But the iambics of the Ephesian Hipponax, beyond 
all others, not excepting even those of Archilochus 
himself, deserve the epithets given to this metre, on 
account of their bitterness and severity. He flourished 
at the time when the empire of Croesus was destroyed 
by Cyrus, a period when Ionic softness and self- 
indulgent luxury had reached its zenith, and his in- 
dignation did not spare their degeneracy. He is said 
to have invented the choliambic or lame iambic, the 
last foot of which was a spondee instead of an iambus ; 
a metre afterwards much used by the writers of 
fables. 

That the fable was not indigenous in Greece, or its 
colonies, is certain, but whence it derived its origin 
it is impossible to determine. It bears the strongest 
resemblance to the parabolic symbolism of Oriental 
nations. Many of these fables, which have found 
their way into all the languages of the civilized world, 
can be traced to the East, and if the fables ascribed to 
iEsop are really his, the introduction in such early 
times of such animals as peacocks, monkeys, and pan- 
thers, seem to point to an Indian original. But still 
all nations of Europe, however independent their 
existence, have their fables, and some were tradition- 
ally known in the early ages of Greek literature by the 
name of Libyan, as though there were no doubt of their 
African origin. 



150 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The oldest fable which we meet with in Greek lite- 
rature is that well-known one of Hesiod, a " The Hawk 
and the Nightingale/' 

Arehilochus, and the Sicilian lyric poet, Stesichorus, 
both wrote fables. That of " The Horse, the Man, 
and the Stag " was written by the latter, in order to 
warn the people of Himera against the designs of the 
tyrant Phalaris; b but the name which modern times 
always connects with fable is that of iEsop. 

As the traditional author of compositions orally 
handed down, and afterwards versified by subsequent 
writers, iEsop demands a place amongst the authors of 
Greek literature. His very existence, like that of 
Homer himself, has been doubted ; but mentioned as 
he is by Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and others, it is 
hard to believe that he was a mere imaginary person. 
It is probable that many fables were attributed to him 
which were not his, just as all the Hesiodic poems 
were attributed to Hesiod ; but the opinion of Bent- 
ley c is probably the correct one, that he was the 
author of fables which he related orally, although he 
did not leave any written works. 

On the authority of Eugeon, a Samian historian, 
quoted by Suidas, d we are informed that iEsop was a 
native of Mesembria in Thrace, although Sardis, Samos, 
and Phrygia, claimed the honour of being his birth- 
place. He was the slave of a Lydian, named Xanthus, 

» Works and Days, 202. b Arist. Rhet. ii. 20. 

c Dis. Fables of iEsop. d Suidas, s. v. K'ktuttoq. 



AGE OF .ESOP. 151 

and afterwards of Iadmon, who emancipated him. 
He subsequently lived at the court of Croesus. 

Herodotus a tells us of a fellow-slave of iEsop, named 
Rhodopis, who lived in the time of Amasis, King of 
Egypt. Plutarch, whose authority is of little value, 
relates that he was sent by Croesus to distribute a 
gratuity among the citizens of Delphi, and that a 
dispute arising they threw him from a precipice and 
killed him. 

a Herod, ii. 134. 



152 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER X. 

GREEK MUSIC. TERPANDER THE INVENTOR OP MUSICAL SCIENCE. — THE 

GREEKS DID NOT UNDERSTAND HARMONY. DEFINITION OF cipfJLOVlKYI. 

THE THREE GENERA. IMPROVEMENTS INTRODUCED BY TERPANDER. — 

THE COLOURS. MODES. THE DORIAN MODE THE OLDEST. CHA- 
RACTER OF DORIAN MUSIC. CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES OF THE 

DORIANS. ELEVEN-STRINGED LYRE OF TIMOTHEUS. OLYMPUS OF 

PHRYGIA. — THALETAS OF CRETE. 

We have now arrived at the period of lyric 
poetry, a style more subjective than any which pre- 
ceded it, which gave utterance to the language of 
deep and fervent passion, and was inseparably con- 
nected with music, both vocal and instrumental. It 
will, therefore, be necessary to prefix to this portion 
of the subject a few general remarks on the musical 
theory of the Greeks. 

The sense or appreciation of melody must always 
have been possessed by that people in a very high 
degree. The ear, which was so nicely tuned as to 
enjoy the varied metres of Greek poetry, must have 
possessed a national music as an art, long before it was 
reduced to system and became a science ; and the 
bards of Pieria, and the minstrels of whom we hear in 
the mythical age, were doubtless, as far as the mere art 
is concerned, practised and accomplished musicians. 



INVENTOR OF MUSICAL SCIENCE. 153 

Owing to the connexion between music and lyric 
poetry, the first inventor of musical science was not 
only a musician, but a poet likewise. This was Ter- 
pander, a native of Antissa. in Lesbos. He flourished 
about B.C. 648. He was the first who adapted melo- 
dies to the national lays of the Lacedaemonians (uAhog 
TTzaJrog xqwArpu role, TorijfiMffi, Ttm rovg AaxebaifLOviav iofLovg 

The musical science of the Greeks comprehended 
only the laws of melody, and the principles of har- 
mony were not understood by them. The only ap- 
proach to harmony with which they were acquainted 
was that of two voices singing at the interval of an 
octave. Of this simplest form of musical concord they 
could not possibly have been ignorant, because, as the 
pitch of male and female voices differ by an octave, 
it would become known to them as soon as they were 
accustomed to make use of a chorus of men and 
women. This species of concord was technicallv 
termed pcvycabtZp*, and as the constitution of the 
Greek musical scale was peculiarly unfitted for harmo- 
nies we are driven to interpret all passages which 
speak of concord, and of two instruments plaved si- 
multaneouslv in different moods, as alluding to this 
simple kind of harmony. 

The term agpotuai (harmony), therefore, as used bv 

the Greeks only signified the science of melody. This 

is evident by the definition of it given by Euclid. 

" Harmony is the theoretical and practical science of 

a M tiller's Dorians, i. 369; ii. 333. Clem. Alex. 



154 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the nature of tune, and tune is composed of notes 
and intervals arranged in a certain order." 

Another fact, which shows the imperfect nature of 
Greek music, is that the instrument to which, until 
the time of Terpander, the Greek theory was adapted 
was the tetrachord. The scale, therefore, only con- 
sisted of four notes, and the two extreme notes of the 
scale were at an interval of a fourth. The arrange- 
ment of the intermediate intervals determined what 
the Greeks designated the genus to which the scale 
belonged. There were three genera. — 1 . The diatonic, 
in which the intervals between the four notes were 
semitone, tone, tone. 2. The chromatic, the intervals 
of which were semitone, semitone, tone and a half. 
3. The enharmonic, which, as is evident from its nature, 
was the most artificial and pedantic, and consequently 
most difficult. The intervals in this genus were 
quarter-tone, quarter-tone, two tones. 

The improvement introduced by Terpander was to 
increase the compass of the instrument, and conse- 
quently of the scale, to an octave by the addition of 
three strings. This compass was called a diapason 
(lid ftoiGav). But it must be remarked, that, although 
the compass was increased, the fundamental system 
still remained unaltered : it was not one octave but two 
tetrachords, with the interval of a tone between them. 
The third string was omitted in this new arrangement 
in order to make the number of notes in the octave 
seven. 

Certain modifications of the intervals in each genus 



GREEK MUSIC AN OBSCURE SUBJECT. 155 

were technically termed xgocu (colours), and consti- 
tuted species. The diatonic admitted two X£oa/, the 
chromatic three. The enharmonic only one, making 

six in all. 

Other arrangements of the intervals, combined also 
with difference of musical pitch, determined the dif- 
ferent modes, rovoi. These, in the earliest state of 
the science, when the tetrachord alone was known, 
were three in number, the Lydian, Phrygian, and the 
Dorian. In these modes, the Lydian was the highest 
and the Dorian the lowest. As musical science 
advanced, these modes were gradually increased in 
number, until at last they amounted to fifteen, of 
which the Hyper-Lydian was the highest, and the 
Hypo-Dorian the lowest. 

The subject of Greek music is one of great 
obscurity ; and this obscurity is increased by the 
subject of concord and discord being treated of so 
differently from the way in which they are treated in 
the modern system. For example, the third, which is 
our easiest and most natural concord, was not consi- 
dered a consonant interval at all. It is plain, therefore, 
that in the method of tuning the scale adopted by the 
ancient Greeks, the major third did not exist at all. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the tetrachord re- 
mained as the fundamental principle of the scale 
until Gregory, the composer of the chaunt which still 
bears his name, substituted the octave, and thus laid 
the foundation for the modern theory. 3 
Burney's Hist. Music. 



156 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The Dorian mode was most probably the oldest, 
and in fact the only genuine Greek style of music. 
The Lydian and Phrygian were introduced subse- 
quently by the iEolians of Lesbos. These, from their 
geographical position, had constant communication 
with Greece on the one hand, and the musical schools 
of Asia Minor on the other ; and hence the two 
newer modes were soon combined with the Dorian 
and formed one national system. As the Dorian 
music resembled in its style the peculiar features of 
the national character, and was marked with sobriety 
and severity, it acquired refinement from the intro- 
duction of the Lydian and Phrygian measures. This 
stern race, strongly impressed with the important 
influence which music exercises over the moral cha- 
racter of a people, and therefore cultivating it as an 
integral part of education, were naturally careful that 
music should express that sentiment and principle 
which so strongly marked all their institutions. "The 
ancients," says Miiller, 3 " who were infinitely quicker 
in discovering the moral character of music than can 
be the case in modern times, attributed to it some- 
thing solemn, firm, and manly, calculated to inspire 
fortitude in supporting misfortunes and hardships, 
and to strengthen the mind against the attacks of 
passion. They discovered in it a calm sublimity, 
and a simple grandeur which bordered on severity, 
equally opposed to inconstancy and enthusiasm ; and 
this is precisely the character which we find so 
Miiller's Dorians, iv. 6. 



SEVERITY OF DORIAN MUSIC. 157 

strongly impressed on the religion, arts, and manners 
of the Dorians. We are thus enabled to draw a 
distinction between the Greeks of Asia and those 
sprung from the mountains in the north of Greece, 
who, proud of their lofty nature and vigour of mind, 
had acquired but little refinement from contact with 
strangers." 

The Dorian race of Sparta, eminently conservative 
in all the principles which it professed, slowly and 
unwillingly admitted improvements in anything, and 
thus Terpander, when he increased the gamut to seven 
notes, was obliged to obtain the sanction of a law to 
legalize the introduction of his invention into Sparta. 
But if there is any truth in the Spartan enactment 
respecting the eleven-stringed lyre of Timotheus, a the 
Dorian attachment to antiquity would not permit 
progress to go further. It decreed, that Timotheus 
should be censured as introducing effeminate music, 
and compelled to restore his lyre to the original 
compass of seven notes. 5 Doubtful although the 
authenticity of this document is, it proves that an 
opinion has been long entertained of the strictness 
with which the Spartans were anxious to maintain 
the severity of their musical style. 

Terpander then may fairly be considered the 
founder of Greek musical science. He invented also 
some system of musical notation, and his written 
melodies, adapted and arranged for the cithara, were 
known in Greece by the title of vopoi. A Phrygian 
a Mus. Crit. i. 506. b Muller's Dorians, iv. 6. 3. 



158 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

musician, named Olympus, whose whole story is 
mythical, is said to have been the inventor of flute 
music, and to have composed in a wild and noisy 
style, suited to the orgiastic rites of the Phrygian 
deity. 

Attached to the worship of Zeus, as the fabulous 
Olympus is said to have been to that of the mother of 
the gods, was a native of Crete, named Thaletas. He 
flourished about B.C. 620, and devoted himself to the 
improvement of the music used at the religious 
festivals. The music attributed to Olympus formed 
the foundation of his system, and the improvements 
which he made upon it he introduced into Sparta, 
and, by engrafting them upon the system of Ter- 
pander, became the second founder of that science 
which was afterwards so ably cultivated by a long 
series of professors. 



LYRIC POETRY. 159 



CHAPTER XI. 

LYRIC POETRY. ITS TWO SCHOOLS OR SUBDIVISIONS. — THEIR GENERAL 

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES COMPARED. THE DORIAN LYRIC EX- 
AMINED IN DETAIL PiEANS. NOMES. HYPORCHEMES. PAR- 

THENIA. PROSODIA. DITHYRAMBS. CYCLIAN CHORUS. ETYMOLOGY 

OF DITHYRAMB. — THE WORSHIP OF APOLLO AND DIANA A CRI- 
TERION OF DORIC ORIGIN. SIMPLICITY OF DORIAN BELIEF. — CHA- 
RACTERISTICS OF APOLLO. SCOLIA, ETC. EUMELUS. ALCMAN. 

ARION. THE LEGEND TOLD BY HERODOTUS. ALCJ3US. SAPPHO. 

HER CHARACTER AND BIOGRAPHY. — ERINNA. 

Greek lyric poetry is the development of the na- 
tional feeling with respect to religious worship, and 
all the stirring or interesting events of public and 
private life. It was peculiarly the poetry of that 
race, of which the iEolians and Dorians formed the 
two branches, and the subjects to which it was de- 
voted, the dialects in which it was written, and the 
characters and moral and intellectual features of those 
two branches will serve to distinguish the schools 
to which the poets, who were its authors, respectively 
belonged. 

The solemn ceremonials of religion at once inspired 
the serious temper and elevated mind of the Dorian, 
and decided the form in which he should pour forth 



160 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

strains, expressive of awe and veneration for the 
deities of his race. The dignified march of the 
priests and their attendants, the more cheerful dance 
of the assistant band of youths and virgins, suggested 
that with them lyric poetry should assume the form 
of stateliness, and yet at the same time be adapted 
by variety for the many-voiced chorus. The deep 
religious feelings, and the grave character which 
marked the race, found expression in the sonorous 
effect and open, long-sustained vowel-sounds of the 
pure Doric dialect ; its very harshness prevented ex- 
pressions of cheerfulness from conveying any idea of 
lightness or frivolity. 

The choral lyric of the Dorians was eminently 
fitted for solemn and sacred subjects, whilst the 
iEolian measures and dialect, participating, to a cer- 
tain extent, in Asiatic softness, was suitable to the 
expression of human sentiment and passion. The 
influence of Asia is plainly visible in the lyric poetry 
of the iEolians. Alcman was a native of Sardis; 
Callinus, of Ephesus ; Mimnermus, of Smyrna. The 
islands in its immediate neighbourhood, Teos, Paros, 
and Ceos, could each boast of its lyric poet, and 
Lesbos was the native country of Terpander, Alcaeus, 
and Sappho. The choral lyric is always marked by 
solemnity and not by passion. If ever it descended 
from heaven to earth, it was in order to celebrate 
the glories of heroes, who, by their exploits, appeared 
to partake almost of a divine nature, or to call forth 
sympathy on those solemn occasions which partake 



^OLIAN LYRIC POETRY. 161 

most of a religious nature, that is, marriages and 
funerals. These are events of human life, but they 
are blessed and consecrated by the especial invocation 
of deity. 

The lyric poetry of the iEolian school, on the other 
hand, — although some of it, like the hymeneal of Sap- 
pho and the choral poetry of Corinna, resembled the 
Dorian in its object and purpose, — was all passion and 
feeling. It sympathised with man rather than endea- 
voured to elevate the soul to the contemplation of, 
and communion with deity. Lyric poetry is the out- 
pouring of the human heart, when inspired either by 
religion or love. The former characterizes the lyric 
of the Dorians, the latter that of the iEolians ; in 
this aspect it viewed all the subjects which it ce- 
lebrated. 

If the Lesbian poets touched upon the events of 
political life, it was not in a spirit of grave and sober 
reflexion on the high and noble destinies or the sad 
fortunes of men, but in a strain of vehemently ex- 
cited feeling. But, though passionate and voluptuous, 
they did not give utterance to self-indulgent feel- 
ings only ; they laid bare their own sentiments, but 
they expressed sympathy with those of others. If 
they sang of love, self seemed forgotten in their de- 
votion to the object of their affections ; if of the joys 
of the banquet, their theme was the social enjoyment 
which accompanies the wine cup, and not the mere 
gratification of the appetite. 

The deities in whose honour choral odes, accom- 

VOL. I. M 



162 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

parried with music and dancing, were sung, were 
Apollo and Dionysus. The earliest choral song was 
the Paean, sung in praise of the former god, as 
the averter of evil ; but although the paean pro- 
perly belonged to the worship of Apollo, the term 
was sometimes applied to poems sung in honour of 
other deities. 3 It was essentially a song of joy, as is 
evidenced by the exclamation !rj, which always formed 
part of its burden. When evil was anticipated, it 
implied hope ; when danger was past, it expressed 
confidence and gratitude. Homer b represents a paean 
as being sung in honour of Apollo, when the Achaeans 
were suffering from the wrath of that deity. When 
the Dorian armies marched to battle, the paean 
cheered and awoke their warlike spirit ; and when 
the victory was won a similar strain expressed their 
triumph over their foes. Muller c attributes the origin 
of the Dorian religious music and poetry to the an- 
cient Phrygian inhabitants of Crete, who celebrated 
the worship of the mother of the gods. He states, 
on the authority of Athenaeus, d that the paean, as well 
as the nome and the hyporcheme, were known in 
Crete in the earliest times, and that the two last 
were in that island connected with cyclic dances. 
The other choral songs were nomes, hyporchemes, 
parthenia, prosodia, and dithyrambs. 

The nomes {vopoi) e were lyric hymns in honour of 

a Hellen. iv. 7, ; Anab. iii. 2. > II. i. 473. 

c Muller's Dorians, iv. 6, 5. d Athen. iv. p. 181, B. 



NOMES, HYPORCHEMES, ETC. 163 

Apollo, set to written tunes ; the hyporchemes (vtt- 
ogfflpciTa) were songs subordinate to the music, and 
accompanying the pantomimic dance which bore the 
same name. a The musical accompaniment was that of 
the flute, and, therefore, the hyporcheme properly 
belonged to the worship of Dionysus, for the flute 
was his instrument, as the cithara was that of Apollo. 
A hyporcheme of Pratinas is preserved by Athense- 
us, b in which he complains that music is usurping 
an undue supremacy over poetry. The parthenia 
(sra^gwa) were grave and modest songs, sung by young 
virgins ; the prosodia (wgoffoht'a) were hymns sung as 
the procession of priests marched up towards the 
altar ; and the dithyramb was a characteristic poem 
in honour of Dionysus. 

The dithyramb was the germ of the choral element 
in the Attic tragedy. It was a hymn sung to the flute, 
whilst the rest of the chorus danced in a circle round 
the altar of the god. From this circumstance the 
dithyrambic choruses were called Cyclian. It is pro- 
bable, however, that in the earliest ages this form 
was not peculiar to the dithyrambic chorus alone, 
if the etymology of Hesychius c is to be trusted, who 
makes %6gog equivalent to zvzXog, or crityuvog ; thus 
connecting it with the Latin word corona, which sig- 
nifies a band arranged in a circular form. 

At what period the dithyramb was first used is 

a Nitzsch, Hist. Horn. p. 40. b -ffischyl. Choeph. v. 1013. 
c Athenseus, xiv. d Hesych. in loco. 

m 2 



164 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

unknown ; it is said, however, that it was first intro- 
duced and exhibited in regular choral form by Arion, 
in the city of Corinth. a He is also said to have 
added to the mere choral element, the recitation of 
verses by actors, representing satyrs, thus, in fact, in- 
vesting it with a rude dramatic form ; and from this 
modification it gradually became more dramatic and 
less choral. The sentiments uttered by such charac- 
ters as satyrs would, of course, be of a joyous if not 
of a jocose kind, 5 and hence there -were two kinds 
of dithyrambs, the one such as we have just described, 
the other of a grave, solemn, and tragic kind, cele- 
brating the sorrows and dangers of Dionysus in his 
varied adventures. 

The meaning and etymology of the word di thy ram- 
bus have been the subject of much investigation, but 
are still involved in obscurity. Blomfield was the 
first to observe the undoubted connexion between the 
words hOvgupfcog, ta(Jb&oc 9 ^loc^Qog (the Latin word tri- 
umphus). It is equally certain that it is allied to the 
Greek words Sgtov and §vgvog. d Now Sgtov signifies (1) 
a fig-leaf, e (2) something wrapped in fig-leaves, f and 
the thyrsus, g which was emblematic of the infant 
Dionysus wrapped in ivy, was sometimes a spear 
terminated by a cone and wreathed with ivy-leaves, 
sometimes a simple shaft without ivy, surmounted 

a Pindar, 01. xiii. 18. b Hor. Art. Poet. 

c Mus. Grit. ii. 70. d Liddell and Scott, Lex. in loco, 

e Aristoph. Vesp. 436. f Aristoph. Ran. 134, &c. 

e Don. Theat, of Greeks, p. 18. 



ETYMOLOGY OF DITHYRAMB. 165 

by a %tb* instead of a cone. If. then, this connexion 

is to be oo:. si.'. zVz ■. as esta . lish - h t 

A/ - foe-ajiftoc would imply the iambic or wild sa- 

:ain san_ t :"_■:.: _ v-hise symbol is the 
thyrsus. If it be objected that the syllable Aj points 
: Zeus rather than Dionysus, it may be answered 
that the transition from the Cretan worship of Zeus 

be Dorian worship of A the subsequent 

the worship of Apollo with that of Dio- 
nysus, is sufficient :o account for this element of the 
wordu Moreove: the -i_:.:r. mini :■: the wore Diouy- 

:he god of Nyso? " ;:"o> that some wore 
which _, o: A,: he root. ~:.i us much :hr r e- 

i -ui: aauie :■:' deity, as the cognate v.-; A id:.-; wa> in 
Latin. 





Such were the forms 


of 1 


rric p 


e t rv 


which formed 


pa 


rt or tie reunions woi 


ship 


■It t 2 £ 


Doi 




■ace. But 




"houoh. theT Dart It en1 


-r-d 


into 


the 


cere 


ids of 


th 


e Dionysiao worship.. 


the 


princ 


-. "'" ± 


deit 


ies of the 


D 


Brians were Apollo a 


r.d I 


l)ia::a. 


and 


not 


Dionysus. 


In 


ail their settlements 


the 




ship 


may 


be traced 


so 


universally, that its 


picS 


enee 


is a 


proo 


f that the 


Pe 


ople amor..'" '"'horn i 


t \. : ' 


avails 


is oi 


1 Do 


ric origin. 


Midler : auerms that A 










■"-: rshipped 


on 


ly by races of Belle 


no? 


deseer 




a n 


ras not a 



national deity of the Pelasgic race. Owing to suc- 
cessive Dorian migrations this worship first perw- 
Delphi and Delos, and the other seats of this worh 
on the continent and islands of the JEgean, next it 

* Halo, de Leg. iiL 700. fc MiUler's Dorians, 228. 



166 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

spread over the coasts of Asia Minor, and lastly was 
introduced into the Peloponnese. 

The simplicity which marked the whole character of 
the Dorians, was originally visible in their religious 
belief. They did not, at first, people every spot with 
supernatural beings, or fill Olympus with deities, like 
the more imaginative Ionians. The only two male 
deities whom they recognised were Zeus and Apollo. 
Zeus, it was believed, held communication with man, 
through Apollo ; he is sometimes called his son, a and 
is the bearer of his commands and revelations. 

In the Homeric hymns, as well as in the " Iliad," 
he is represented as the bearer to men of the divine 
blessings and the divine vengeance. He is always the 
author of evil which is justly deserved ; not of evil 
abstractedly. In the " Iliad" b he is represented as the 
inflictor of pestilence, only to be cured by appeasing his 
wrath through priestly interposition. His weapons of 
vengeance are, from their swiftness and unseen na- 
ture, represented as arrows; and the archer himself 
is called the far-darting one. 

But though the minister of divine vengeance, his 
names of Apollo and Psean imply that he was a pro- 
tecting and a healing power. The former was, accord- 
ing to its oldest orthography, 'AttsKKm, the averter 
(of ill), a title synonymous with the other epithets 
applied to him of u\e%Ucczog and aTrorgoTrcctog. The 
latter from vmu, to heal, was applied to him as the only 
deity who could heal the wounds which he had him- 

a "Eicctror Aioe viog, Alcman, Hephaest. Gaisf. p. 61. b II. i. 



WORSHIP OF APOLLO AND DIANA. 167 

self inflicted. It is probable that the connexion be- 
tween Apollo and cc7r6\\v(jiji, to destroy, and between 
Psean and tccm, to strike, is only accidental ; and that 
the use of the epithets in these senses is an instance of 
that play upon words which was universally admired by 
the Greek poets. 

The goddess Diana, who was associated with Apollo 
as an object of Dorian worship, was represented as his 
sister. These two constituted the male and female 
development of the same idea of deity — they sym- 
bolized the sources of light; they were personifications 
of the two principal heavenly bodies, the sun and 
moon. 

The belief that Apollo was the sun-god, harmonizes 
with all the attributes ascribed to him. The rays of 
the sun might be poetically symbolized by the arrows 
of the god. The distance of the sun from the earth 
would procure for Apollo the title of the " Far-darter," 
— the baneful effects of the solar heat on the one 
hand, or its healthful influence on the other, would 
cause him to be looked upon as the inflictor of 
fever and pestilence, as well as the healing power. 
Lastly, as the source of physical light and heat, he 
would naturally be worshipped as the author of poeti- 
cal and prophetical enthusiasm, and as bearing the 
messages of intellectual light and knowledge from 
God to man ; as the divine illuminator of man's 
mental darkness. 

The worship of Apollo and Diana was afterwards 
superseded by that of Dionysus, and the paean gave 



168 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

place to the dithyramb. How this came to pass, his- 
tory does not inform us ; we know only that the former 
worship was peculiarly Hellenic, whilst the latter was 
of foreign origin. It is plain that the Dionysiac wor- 
ship was a degenerate and less spiritual one. 

Instead of the refinements of poetry and music being 
consecrated to the service of heavenly beings, they 
were devoted to that of deities who dwelt amongst 
men, who made earth their abiding place. Apollo and 
Diana had symbolized the heavenly causes of produc- 
tion : Dionysus represented the fertility of earth. A 
link lower down in the chain of causes was thus 
substituted as an object of adoration for that which 
had previously been regarded as the first cause. 
But the Dorian choral lyric was national and patriotic, 
as well as religious, and hence possesses an historical 
value. 

The political events and circumstances of the times 
entered very largely into the writings of the lyric 
poets ; and from the personal knowledge which Alcman, 
Thaletas, and Tyrtseus possessed of the people of Sparta, 
reliance can safely be placed on their authority. In 
fact to them are we indebted for all that is authentic 
in the history of the first and second Messenian wars, 
since the other romantic incidents contained in the 
narratives of Plutarch, are only based upon family 
legends and popular traditions. 

The distinction between the two schools cannot be 
maintained when treating of the convivial poetry of 
the Greeks, for poems of this class were written both 



CONVIVIAL POETRY. 169 

by iEolians and Dorians. The most popular of these 
lyrical compositions were the Scolia. The guests at a 
banquet passed a branch of myrtle from one side to 
the other of the table, and each in turn, as he held it, 
was called upon to sing a few verses. The connexion 
of metre and subject was preserved throughout the 
whole series of singers, and the whole poem thus 
sung was termed oxofaov. These compositions did 
not, as might be expected, merely celebrate the plea- 
sures and enjoyments of social life, but were fre- 
quently vehicles of sage and wise reflexions, or of free 
and patriotic sentiments. 

Grave and solemn as was the natural temper of the 
Dorians, their lyric poetry permitted the introduc- 
tion of light and secular subjects. The songs which 
enlivened the banquet did not always speak the 
words of wisdom ; they were sometimes, as might be 
expected, during hours of unrestrained freedom and 
social relaxation, joyous and voluptuous, as those 
of the iEolians, and not unfrequently coarse and licen- 
tious. 

The following scolia, by Pittacus, Simonides, and 
Callistratus, will exhibit the general scope and ten- 
dency of these compositions : — 

7,vvet(Jjv iarlv avcipuip 
Hplv yEvsadai to. Sw^epf} 
Hpovorjaai 07twq prj yivqraC 
^Avlpeioiv 11, yEv6p.eva ev Seadai. 

Against each ill provides the prudent breast : 
The brave man feels whatever is is best. 



170 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

"Yyiaiveiv fJL'ev apurrov ctvdpl $va.Thi' 
Asvrepov Ce, Ka\6v (j>vav yEvsaQai' 
To rpirov eg, nXovTEiv a'co'Xwe* 
Kai to Teraprov, f](3q,v perd twv <pi\h)'v. 

Of mortal joys, the first is health ; 

The second gift is beauty's charm ; 
The next to these is guileless wealth ; 

Then youth if blest with friendship warm, 

'Ey fivpTOv ickadl to JityoQ <f>opr]ff(t), k. t. X. 

I '11 wreathe my sword in myrtle bough — 
The sword that laid the tyrant low, 
When patriots, burning to be free, 
To Athens gave equality. 

Harmodius, hail ! though 'reft of breath, 
Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death ; 
The heroes' Happy Isles shall be 
The bright abodes allotted thee. 

I '11 wreathe my sword in myrtle bough, — 
The sword that laid Hipparchus low ; 
When at Minerva's adverse fane 
He knelt, and never rose again. 

While freedom's name is understood, 
You shall delight the wise and good ; 
You dared to set your country free, 
And gave her laws equality. 

There were also other songs (Kccgoivia), which were 
purely convivial ; tc^oi, or songs accompanied with 
dances on occasions of domestic rejoicings ; and sKidcc- 
\d[jbicc, sung at marriages in honour of the bride. 

The following were the principal lyric poets who 
flourished during this, its first period : — 



EUMELUS, ALCMAN. 171 

Eumelus, (about) B.C. 768. 

Eumelus, a a native of Corinth, who lived in the 
early Olympiads. He was the author of epic poems, 
and also an historical poem, the subject of which 
was Corinth. The lyrical production for which he is 
known, is a prosodion in honour of Apollo ; and whilst 
doubt rests upon the genuineness of the other poems 
which are ascribed to him, this was considered by 
Pausanias, as his work. b He is not placed by the 
Alexandrian grammarians in their canon of nine 
lyric poets. These were Alcman, Alcaeus, Sappho, 
Stesichorus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, 
and Pindar. 

Alcman, (about) B.C. 671. 

Alcman, whom tradition hands down as the great- 
est lyric poet of whom Sparta could boast, was a 
native of Sardis ; brought to Sparta as a slave, he was 
emancipated, and naturalized as a citizen. He lived, 
according to Suidas, about B.C. 671. Muller says, 
that he was a child at the close of the reign of 
Ardys, B.C. 629. The period of his poetical career 
at Sparta, was that immediately succeeding the second 
Messenian war. Probably the high reputation which 
he enjoyed was owing to the fact, that his adopted 
countrymen had now, for the first time, leisure to 
devote themselves to the refinements of poetry, as 
3 See Matihiae Hist, of Lit. b Paus. iv. 4, § 1. 



172 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the fragments which have come down to us, scarcely 
warrant the estimation in which they were held, or the 
title awarded to him of the principal lyric poet. His 
poems comprehend all the species of lyric composition 
above mentioned, and his love songs, of which style 
of poetry he is said by Suidas to have been the 
inventor, are distinguished by a voluptuousness, which 
forms a marked contrast to the severity of the Dorian 
character. 

The poems for which he was most famed were 
parthenia. These were choruses, sung by bands of 
virgins, and accompanied by music, in which science 
he was a proficient. They were of a solemn kind, 
and their subjects were of a religious character. 



Arion, (about) B.C. 628. 

Arion, who is said to have been the inventor of the 
dithyrambus, was also a lyric poet ; he was a native 
of Lesbos, and a friend of Periander of Corinth, and 
therefore lived about B.C. 635. The following legend 
is told respecting him, by Herodotus, on the authority 
of the Corinthians and Lesbians. a 

Having made a voyage to Italy, and earned a large 
sum of money, he hired a Corinthian vessel at Taren- 
tum, in order to return to the court of Periander. 
The sailors, tempted by his wealth, determined to 
throw him overboard, but he, discovering their inten- 
tion, entreated them to take his money, but spare his 
a Herod, i. 24. 



. ARION, ALCEUS. 173 

life. His prayers were ineffectual, for they only gave 
him the alternative, of either killing himself, in order 
that he might obtain the rites of burial, or leaping into 
the sea. Arion then besought the sailors, that they 
would permit him to stand in the stern of the vessel and 
sing. Delighted at the prospect of hearing him, they 
consented. Taking therefore his cithara, he sang the 
Orthian nome, and when his strain was ended, he 
leaped into the sea, and a dolphin bore him safe to 
Tsenarus. A monument at Taenarus commemorated 
this legend in the days of Herodotus, and, in after 
ages, the poet and his harp were immortalized among 
the constellations. 

Alcjeus, (about) B.C. 610. 

Alcaeus was also a Lesbian, a native of Mitylene, 
whose patriotism shone forth in his military prowess, a 
as well as in his impassioned poetry. b At the very 
commencement of his poetical career, B.C. 610, his 
native country was distracted by those contests between 
the aristocratic and democratic parties, which were 
the curse of every Greek state at some period of its 
history. Alcseus was noble, and therefore supported 
the aristocratic faction. The success of democracy 
led as usual to the establishment of a tyranny, and 
Alcseus and his brother were exiled. After a time he 
returned, and headed an unsuccessful attempt to 
restore the aristocratic party to power. 

3 Hor. Od. i. iii. 2 ; n. xiii. 28. b Quinct. xi. 63. 



174 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

On this occasion, the celebrated Pittacus was 
elected tyrannus by the people. His moderation led 
him to pardon Alcseus and the exiled nobles, not- 
withstanding the literary provocations with which 
the poet had assailed him, magnanimously saying 
that forgiveness is better than revenge. He then 
became a wanderer from his native land, and died 
in exile. 

His poems are especially interesting, as having fur- 
nished to Horace, not only a metrical model, but also 
the subject-matter, of some of his most beautiful odes. 
They may be divided into three classes. 1. Hymns, 
some of which relate, in simple and graceful verse, 
some favourite legend of the deity to whom they 
were addressed ; for example, the adventures of Mer- 
cury, imitated by Horace. a 

2. Odes, which sing the praises of love and wine, 
of which the most beautiful are those which he 
addressed to the object of his admiration, even more 
than of his love, the poetess Sappho. b Miiller ob- 
serves, that his drinking songs were not invitations to 
mere sensual enjoyment, but universally connected 
with reflections on the circumstances of the times, or 
upon man's destiny in general. 

3. But it is in the third class of his poems that 
the peculiar features of the mind of Alcaeus are 
especially exhibited, viz., his zeal as a political par- 
tizan, and his hearty devotion to the principles of 
his party. These poems were called ^/^oo-rac/acr/^a, 

a Hor. Od. i. 10. b Arist. Rhet. i. 9. 



ALC^US, SAPPHO. 175 

or party poems. One of them is imitated by Horace, a 
in that ode in which he describes the state, during 
times of civil commotion, as a tempest-tossed vessel, 
the sport of the winds and waves ; a metaphor which 
has been adopted by poets and orators in every age. 
There is another, also imitated by Horace, b in which, 
transported with joy at the liberation of his country 
from the tyranny of Myrsilus, he exclaims, Now 
is the time for drinking, since Myrsilus is dead. 

Sappho, (about) b.c. 610. 

Contemporary with Alcseus, and perhaps even 
more admired, was the much calumniated Sappho. 
She was a woman of the liveliest fancy, and the 
most ardent passions. Warmhearted, and endowed 
with more than common tenderness of disposition, 
openness, and candour, which made it impossible 
for her to conceal her inmost thoughts, or to veil 
her feelings in words less warm than the feelings 
themselves, have caused her character to be maligned, 
and her motives misinterpreted. Miiller remarks, 
" That the strict morality with which she reproves 
the licentiousness of her brother Charaxus, fully 
acquits her of levity of character, inasmuch as her 
reproof would have been her own condemnation." 
It is not, of course, to be supposed that Sappho was 
purer-minded than other women of her age, but there 

a Hor. Od.i. U: b Ibid. i. 37. 

e On this subject see Welcker, Sappho befreit, &c. Gott. 1816. 



176 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

is no evidence for believing that she was inferior to 
them in morality. She was the native of a country 
in which little restraint was put upon the indulgence 
of the softer passions, whose poets were accustomed 
to express their amatory feelings in the warmest 
language. She, therefore, as a poet, would naturally 
pour forth her feelings in similar strains, she would 
forget her sex in the enthusiasm of inspiration, but 
it by no means follows that in her conduct she would 
forget her sex's modesty. It must be remembered 
that Sappho was an iEolian, and therefore enjoyed far 
more liberty and public intercourse with general so- 
ciety than Ionian women, who lived in a retirement 
and seclusion almost like that of Orientals, with 
the sole exception that they were actively employed 
in the management of domestic concerns. Hence 
the Athenians were likely to consider the openness 
with which Sappho expressed those feelings which 
women instinctively conceal, as unmaidenly, nay, even 
as unfeminine. It is true that she does not hesitate 
to pour forth her passionate accents in the most 
glowing language, but then in her case, it was thinking 
aloud; nor did she know the duty of concealment. 
She seems to have instinctively felt that poets have 
a right a to dare anything. Nor was there a calumny 
breathed against her for generations after her death. 
The Athenian comic poets were the first to slander 
her, and to attack her, as they were wont to attack 
the female sex generally. Their accusations, moreover, 
a Hor. Art. Poet. 



CHARACTER OF SAPPHO. 177 

were addressed to an audience from which women 
were excluded, and at a period when the virtuous 
of the sex were denied that education which would 
have fitted them to be companions of men of refine- 
ment, and thus were degraded from their proper 
place in society. Sappho's reputation was first assailed 
when accomplishments were possessed by the licen- 
tious alone of the female sex, and the mere fact of 
being a poetess would have been sufficient to create 
a prejudice against her. 

Her poems were* principally epithalamia and hymns, 
and as, among the Latin poets, Horace delighted to 
imitate Alcseus, in his nobler odes, and adopted the 
metre of Sappho in his lighter and softer poems; so 
the sweetest and most poetical of them all, Catullus, a 
often appropriated the impassioned thoughts, and 
nature-loving imagery of Sappho, — the brightest of 
those bright female minds which throw a lustre 
over Greek lyric poetry. b Of one of her poems, the 
wise Solon is said to have exclaimed, that he would 
not be content to die, until he had committed it to 
memory. And it is a matter of the deepest regret 
that so few fragments of her compositions are pre- 
served. The following are faithful translations of 
two, which have always been admired for their sin- 
gular beauty : — 

Blest as the immortal gods is he, 

The youth who fondly sits by thee, 

And hears and sees thee all the while 

Softly speak, and sweetly smile. 

a See Catul. li. b Stobseus, xxix. 28. 

VOL. I. N 



178 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

'Twas this deprived my soul of rest, 
And raised such tumults in my breast ; 
For while I gazed, in transport tost, 
My breath was gone, my voice was lost. 

My bosom glowed ; the subtle flame 
Ran quick through all my vital frame ; 
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung, 
My ears with hollow murmurs rung. 

In dewy damps my limbs were chilled ; 
My blood with gentle horrors thrilled, 
My feeble pulse forgot to play, 
I fainted, sank, and died away. 

Ambeose Phillips. 

Ad Lesbiam. 

Ille mi par esse deo videtur, 
Ille, si fas est, superare divos, 
Qui sedens adversus identidem te 

Spectat, et audit 

Dulce ridentem • misero quod omnis 
Eripit sensus mihi ; nam simul te, 
Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi 

Voce loquendum. 

Lingua sed torpet ; tenues sub artus 
Flamma dimanat ; sonitu suopte 
Tinniunt aures ; gemina teguntur 
Lumina nocte. 

Catullus. 

Hymn to Venus. 

Venus, beauty of the skies, 
To whom a thousand temples rise, 
Gaily false in gentle smiles, 
Full of love-perplexing wiles ; 
goddess, from my heart remove, 
The wasting cares and pains of love ! 



TRANSLATION FROM SAPPHO 179 

If ever thou hast kindly heard, 
A song in soft distress preferred, 
Propitious to my tuneful vow, 
0, gentle goddess ! hear me now, 
Descend, thou bright immortal guest, 
In all thy radiant charms confess'd. 

Thou once didst leave almighty Jove, 
And all the golden roof above ; 
The car, thy wanton sparrows arew, 
Hovering in air they lightly new ; 
As to my bower they wing'd their way, 
I saw their quivering pinions play. 

The birds dismiss'd (while you remain). 
Bore back their empty car again ; 
Then you with looks divinely mild, 
In every heavenly feature smiled, 
And asked what new complaints I made, 
And why I call'd you to my aid. 

What frenzy in my bosom raged, 
And by what cure to be assuaged ; 
What gentle youth I would allure, 
Whom in my artful toils secure. 
Who does thy tender heart subdue — 
Tell me, my Sappho, — tell me who ? 

Though now he shuns thy longing arms, 
He soon shall court thy slighted charms ; 
Though now thy offerings he despise, 
He soon to thee shall sacrifice. 
Though now he freeze, he soon shall burn, 
And be thy victim in his turn. 

Celestial visitant, once more, 
Thy needful presence I implore ! 
In pity come and ease my grief, 
Bring my distempered soul relief; 
Favour thy suppliant's hidden fires, 
And give me all my heart desires. 

Ambrose Phillips. 
n2 



180 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Respecting her biography but little is known ; the 
principal authorities are, the Parian marble, and the 
traditions contained in Ovid's epistle of Sappho a to 
the imaginary Phaon. She was born either at Eresos or 
Mitylene, about the forty-second Olympiad, and was 
therefore a contemporary of Alcseus, Stesichorus, and 
Pittacus. Her fathers name has been variously stated, 
and he died when she was six years old. Her mother's 
name was Cleis, She had three brothers, Larychus, Cha- 
raxus, and Eurygius. She married an Andrian, named 
Cercolas, by whom she had one daughter, who was 
named after her mother Cleis. Her life, like that of 
many other Lesbian women of talent and refinement, 
was passed in literary pursuits, in the midst of a 
circle of female friends and pupils of her own sex, 
to whom she was devotedly attached. Amongst them 
are preserved the names of Anagora of Miletus, 
Goggyla of Colophon, and Eunice of Salamis, b and 
from the epithet yegotirsgu, which she applies to herself, 
it is evident that she lived beyond the prime of life. 
Besides elegies, iambics, and monodies, she wrote 
nine books of lyric poems, and is said to have invented 
the plectrum. 

The whole romantic story of Sappho's love for 
Phaon, and her leap, in the despair of disappointed 
love, from the Leucadian promontory, are legendary. 
That Sappho, in her amatory poems, delighted to 
sing of the loves of Aphrodite and Adonis, is very 

a Heroid. xv. b Fr. 20. c Suidas, s. v. 



LEGEND OF PHAON. I 81 

probable, and hence, the last line of the Sapphic stanza 
was termed by the grammarians, an Adonian. Hesiod a 
also states that a child named Phaethon was carried 
away by Aphrodite. This name may perhaps have 
become corrupted into Phaon, and substituted, in the 
legend, for that of Adonis ; and if made the subject 
of any of Sappho's odes, may have come to be 
considered as the name of a lover of her own. b A 
similar account may be given of the Leucadian rock, 
since a legend of the same kind forms part of the 
love-tale of Adonis and Aphrodite. Perhaps, as has 
been suggested, the whole legend originated in 
the poets having spoken of a violent passion, as one 
which could only be cured by a leap from the Leu- 
cadian promontory. The rhythm of her poems, with 
some slight variations, is essentially the same as that 
of her fellow-countryman Alcaeus. The following 
neatly-turned epigram is extant in honour of the ad- 
mired poetess : — 

Evve'a rag ^lovaac (paaiv rivet,'' wc oXtywpwe* 
'YLvice Kai Ha~<poj \ea~66ey q cekuti]. 

Some count the Muses nine, how careless ! when 
Sappho of Lesbos makes the number ten. 

Erixna, (about) B.C. 610. 

Erinna, the young Rhodian poetess, as she was the 
friend of Sappho, may be mentioned here, although her 
poems were of the epic class. Her principal work, "The 

a Theoo-. 9S6. b M tiller, 174-5. 



182 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Distaff" ('HXaaaV??), consisted of only three hundred 
lines ; but short as they were, they have been thought 
worthy of comparison even with Homer. The four 
lines which remain, furnish no opportunity of judging 
of her merit. Great, however, must have been the 
genius of a maiden, who, cut off at the early age 
of nineteen, left such fame behind her, and such 
reason to lament her untimely fate. 



STESICHORUS. 183 



CHAPTER XII. 

STESICHORUS. — BIOGRAPHY. — LEGENDS. CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS 

POETRY. — THE IMPROVER OF BUCOLIC POETRY. IBYCUS. THE 

CRANES OF IBYCUS. — ANACREON. THE POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO HIM 

SPURIOUS. — BIOGRAPHY. — HIS ASSOCIATES, ESPECIALLY MIMNERMUS. 
— STORY OF HIS DEATH. — SIMONIDES HIS LIFE. — LEGEND RESPECT- 
ING HIM. EPITAPH ON ARCHEDICE. BACCHYLIDES. PINDAR. 

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF HIS AGE. RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

B030TIAN POETRY. BIOGRAPHY. STYLE OF PINDAR'S POETRY. 

EPINICIAN ODES. HIS MODE OF PRODUCING VARIETY. ADVICE OF 

CORINNA. — RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF PINDAR'S MIND. TESTIMONY 

OF HORACE. — PINDARIC METRES. 

STESICHORUS, B. c 632 — 560. 

Contemporary with Sappho and Alcseus, was Stesi- 
chorus, of Himera in Sicily ; the friend, as it is said, 
of Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum. He was born 
B.C. 632, and died B.C. 560. b There is a tradition 
that he was the son of Hesiod. This of course 
involves an anachronism, but the origin of it has been 
satisfactorily accounted for, c by connecting it with 
another account, which states that his family lived 
at Metaurus, a Locrian colony in Italy. Among the 
Ozolian Locrians there lived a line of bards, admirers 

a Phalaris, Ep. b Rhet. ii. 20. c Miiller. 



184 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and followers of Hesiod, who, like the Homerides, 
affected the title of sons of that poet. a One of these 
families probably migrated to Metaurus, and from 
them Stesichorus descended. Suidas b informs us 
that his original name was Tisias, and that he was 
called Stesichorus, on Kgarog xiOugath'u %ogov \arr\azv. 
The meaning of this is that he introduced in choruses 
the epode in addition to the strophe and antistrophe, 
during the recital of which the chorus remained 
stationary. Greek legends tell of miraculous events 
connected with his life. When an infant, a night- 
ingale sat and sang upon his lips. In after-life he 
was struck blind after writing an attack on Helen, 
and when he wrote a recantation was restored to 
sight. He had two brothers — Mamertinus and 
Helianax — the one celebrated as a geometrician, the 
other as a legislator. 

The distinguishing characteristic of Stesichorus' 
poetry is, that he adapted epic subjects to lyric verse. 
The difficulty of such a task as this, the poetic skill 
which it must have required is acknowleged by Quinc- 
tilian, c who, whilst he finds fault with him for diffuse- 
ness, nevertheless compares him to Homer, and says 
that " he supported the weight of epic poetry with 
his lyre." d 

Muller seems to think a successful union of these 
two styles impossible. 6 Doubtless to embody in a 

a Clinton, Fasti Hellenici. b Suidas, s. v. 

c Quinct. i. 62. d Ibid. i. 62. e Muller, p. 200. 



BUCOLIC POETRY. 185 

lyric poem, with all its usual accompaniments, an 
epic narrative, or even a single episode — especially 
one in the Hesiodic style, from which school of poetry 
Stesichorus borrowed — would be a vain attempt ; but 
to touch lightly on and narrate briefly some striking 
exploits of popular and favourite heroes, or some scenes 
of marvellous or pathetic interest, such as Horace 
occasionally introduces in his most beautiful odes, 
would be perfectly appropriate : and in this, as far 
as we can judge from the fragments extant, the art 
of Stesichorus consisted. He thus recalled the old 
reminiscences of the ancient bards, and adorned them 
with all the modern graces of the voice, the instru- 
ment, and the dance. 

As the spirit which pervaded Greek lyric poetry 
gave expression to the affections and interests of 
private life, we owe, as might be expected, the 
position which the Bucolic, or Pastoral, occupies in 
Greek poetry to a Dorian lyric poet. Stesichorus was 
the first to invest it with a classical character. 
With this species of poetry we are familiar in the 
pastorals of Theocritus, who belongs to a far later 
age of Greek literature, and to the delightful eclogues 
of his imitator, Virgil. It is not a favourite in the 
present day, but there was a period in the history 
of English literature when the imitation of the ancients 
was highly valued, and when this species of poetry 
was much admired. 

It is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory theory of 
the origin of bucolic poetry. Epic-harm us, the Sicilian, 



186 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

celebrates the ftovzoXtcccpoJ of the Italian and Sicilian 
shepherds, 3 and describes them as songs accompanied 
with dancing. It is probable, therefore, that the 
Pastoral was the native poetry of the Siculi, the abo- 
riginal inhabitants of Italy, who having been driven 
from their native country by a conquering race, 
formed new settlements in Sicily, and gave their 
name to the island. They were a simple and pastoral 
race, and the original Bucolic doubtless presented a 
real picture of habits and manners — related the joys 
and cares, and loves of this shepherd people, the 
pleasures and anxieties of rural life. The early con- 
nexion established between Dorian colonists and the 
aboriginal Siculi, soon caused the Bucolic to put on 
a Doric dress, and adopt the Dorian dialect, to be 
grafted as a new branch of the Dorian literature. 
It was also in its origin, like the Dorian choral lyric, 
consecrated to the service of religion ; pastoral poetry 
formed part of the worship of the Siculan rural deity, 
Pales, from which the Romans derived their festival 
of Palilia, and hymns of a similar character were 
sung in honour of Diana by the shepherd inhabitants 
of the upland pastures and mountainous districts in 
the Peloponnesus. 5 Many traces of its Siculan origin 
may be discovered in the bucolic poetry itself. The 
frequently recurring name of Tityrus was used by the 
Dorians of Italy to designate the goat which was 
" Father of the herd," and thence was transferred to 

a Athenseus, xiv. ; Hesych.; Etym. M. 
b Servius, ad Yirg. Eel. 



THE CRANES OF IBYCUS. 187 

the goatherd himself. The earliest pastoral is said 
to have been sung by a Sicilian cowherd named 
Diomus, 3 and the shepherd Daphnis, the hero of 
Theocritus' " Idylls," is represented as pouring forth 
his laments for his mistress's jealousy, and his loss 
of sight, of which she was the cruel cause, in the 
neighbourhood of the Sicilian Himera. 

Ibycus, (about) b. c. 540. 

Ibycus was a native of Rhegium, b descended from 
a Messenian family, who migrated thither after the 
second Messenian war. Suidas says that he flourished 
about B.C. 560 ; but if, as is generally believed, he 
was the friend of Polycrates of Samos, his era must 
be placed about B.C. 540, The warmth of his amatory 
poems obtained for him the epithet of love-maddened 
(s^6t)ro(j!j(zvs(Trarog) ; but some of his poems were of 
a loftier and more epic character. 

A miraculous legend is related of him, which gave 
rise to the proverbial expression, " the cranes of 
Ibycus." As he was travelling he was attacked by 
robbers and murdered. In his dying moments he 
called upon some cranes which were flying over his 
head to avenge his death. Suddenly in the Corinthian 
theatre the cranes appeared to the assembled audience, 
and hovered over its roofless walls. One of the mur- 
derers, who was present, exclaimed, " Behold the 
avengers of Ibycus," and thus involuntarily convicted 
himself of the crime. 
a Muller, Hist. Literature. b Suidas ; Gic. Tusc. Qusest. iv. 33. 



188 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Anacreon 7 (about) b. c. 540. 

Those who have admired, in their school days, 
the graceful odes which bear the name of Ana- 
creon may be surprised to find that they are not 
the works of this poet, but belong to an age proba- 
bly as late as the Christian era. Beautiful as these 
little effusions are, we in vain look for the glow- 
ing warmth and poetical enthusiasm which characte- 
rise the muse of Greece in its most flourishing lyric 
period, and which are visible in the very few genuine 
fragments remaining to us. He was born at Teos, 
and thence migrated to Abdera, B.C. 542, a but his 
great patron was Polycrates, who, like most of the 
rvgowos, was a great encourager of literature, and 
all the arts of civilized life. Tradition represents 
his poetry as being entirely of that class which is 
still called Anacreontic. It celebrated the joys of 
love and wine. His life, too, is said to have been in 
accordance with the spirit of his poetry. 

After the death of Polycrates he attached himself 
to a band of contemporary poets, who lived at the 
court of Hipparchus, and were joyous, jovial, and volup- 
tuous, devoted heart and soul to the sensual enjoy- 
ment of life. Mimnermus, of whom mention has 
been already made among the elegiac poets, formed the 
only exception in the society to which, as well as Ana- 
creon, he belonged. He was no less a sensualist than 
they were, nor had he more moral principle, or 

a Matthiae> History of Literature, s. v. 



DEATH AND EPITAPH OF ANACREON. 189 

strength of mind, to restrain his appetite; but his 
refinement was greater, and his temperament natu- 
rally melancholy. He saw the hollowness of mere 
selfish enjoyment, and he gave utterance to his glow- 
ing spirit in lamentations on the shortness and sorrows 
of life. Anacreon was probably a man of strong pas- 
sions, and possessed one of those vigorous and healthy 
physical constitutions which even debauchery and 
self-indulgence fail to destroy. At any rate he is said 
to have attained the age of eighty-five years, and even 
then (about B.C. 480) to have died not of disease, but 
by accidentally swallowing a grape-stone. 

This legend, however, bears so much the appear- 
ance of having been invented, because such a death 
was not inappropriate to a lover of conviviality, that it 
is scarcely deserving of credit. He was buried in his 
native country ; and his friend Simonides wrote two 
epitaphs to his memory. Another, also, is preserved 
in the Greek " Anthology," of which the following is 
a translation by an anonymous author : — 

QdWot TETpaKOpVfJLtoQ, K. T. X. 

This tomb be thine, Anacreon ; all around 
Let ivy wreathe, let flow'rets deck the ground, 
And from its earth enriched with such a prize, 
Let wells of milk and streams of wine arise ; 
So will thine ashes yet a pleasure know, 
If any pleasure reach the shades below. 



190 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

siMONiDES, born B.C. 556. 

Simonides a was born in the island of Ceos, 01. lvi. i. 
(b.c. 556). His family was connected with the Diony- 
siac worship, and the part which he himself, when a 
boy, is said to have taken in this poetical worship pro- 
bably fostered his natural genius for poetry. The 
principal part of his life was spent at Athens, at 
the court of Hipparchus. How long after the expul- 
sion of the tyrants he remained at Athens is uncer- 
tain, but he next removed to Thessaly, where he en- 
joyed the patronage of two families, the Aleuadse and 
Scopadse. 

A legend is told by Cicero, b relating to the life of 
the poet in Thessaly. In a triumphal ode in which 
he had sung the praises of Scopas, he introduced 
also those of Castor and Pollux. Scopas, therefore, 
asserted that the two heroes should fairly pay half 
the promised premium for his poem. During the 
banquet it was told Simonides that two young men 
were at the door who wished to speak with him. He 
obeyed the summons, but found no one there ; and in 
his absence the banqueting-room fell and crushed 
Scopas and his friends. After this event the heaven- 
protected poet returned to Athens, where, in his 
eightieth year, he gained, for the fifty-sixth time, the 
prize in the dithyrambic chorus. The last years of his 
long life were spent at the court of Hiero. Amongst 
all the eminent literary men whom the taste and 

a MatthisD, History of Literature. 
b Cicero, de Nat. ii. 86. 



EPITAPH ON ARCHEDICE. 191 

munificence of the tyrant attracted to Syracuse, Simo- 
nides was his chief favourite. He was a more worldly- 
minded man than the high-souled Pindar, and could 
far more easily adapt himself to the manners of a 
court, and the society of a prince. 

Simonides was also, to a certain extent, a philo- 
sopher, as well as a poet. He possessed stores of 
moral and political wisdom, which rendered him a 
valuable counsellor to Hiero, as well as an agreeable 
companion. As a lyric poet he was inferior to Pindar, 
his style is not adorned with that sublime beauty, that 
variety of imagery and illustration. But though sur- 
passed in lyric power by him who brought the ode to 
perfection, he stands unrivalled in the neatness and 
elegance of his epigrams, and the mournful and affec- 
tionate strains of his elegiac poetry. As he was the 
first to use the elegiac metre for funeral songs and 
monumental inscriptions, so in the skill and force with 
which he used it, he has never been equalled. The 
simple epitaph on Archedice, the daughter of Hippias, 
' A^oc uourrtvffMros, k. r. a. is well known to every reader 
of Thucydides, and the following quaint yet faithful 
translation will give some idea of its neatness to the 
English reader : — 

Archedice, the daughter of King Hippias, 

Who in his time 
Of all the potentates of Greece was prime, 

This dust doth hide, 
Daughter, wife, sister, mother, unto kings she was, 

Yet free from pride. 

Hobbes. 



192 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Many a touching epitaph may be read in the " An- 
thologia," written by him in honour of the patriot 
warriors of Greece, who fell in the Persian war at 
Salamis, and Artemisium, and Thermopylse, and Ma- 
rathon. With the elegy written in honour of those 
who fell at the last-mentioned of these glorious occa- 
sions he vanquished iEschylus himself. 41 Probably the 
terrible and majestic style of the great tragic poet was 
ill adapted to inspire tenderness and sympathy. 

BACCHYLIDES. 

Bacchylides belonged to a family in which, as was so 
often the case, poetry was followed as an hereditary pro- 
fession. He was the nephew of Simonides. Nothing 
is known respecting his life, except that he was born 
at Ceos, that he lived with Simonides and Pindar at 
the court of Hiero, and was a rival of Pindar, al- 
though it can scarcely be believed that he was a 
worthy one, 

As far as a judgment can be formed from the few 
relics extant of his numerous and various poems, 
they exhibit polish, correctness, delicacy, and orna- 
ment, but not the fire or fervour of Pindar. His 
excellence was the result of education rather than of 
natural poetic inspiration. The emperor Julian is said 
to have drawn from the lyrics of Bacchylides rules for 
the conduct of life, so highly did he appreciate their 
ethical value. b The following epigram will furnish a 

a 01. lxxii. 3. b Pearce's Longinus. 



ERA OF PINDAR. 193 

specimen of the sentiments frequently found in the 
poetry of Bacchylides : — 

AvBia fxkv yap \idog 
Mavvei ypvaov 
'AvBputv B' dperdv 
Y.O(piav re TtayKparris 
'EXey^a d\{]deia. 

" The touchstone tries the purity of gold, 
And by all-conquering truth man's worth and wit is told." 



pindar, born B.C. 517. 

Pindar flourished on the confines of the two great 
literary periods. iEschylus was his contemporary ; 
and therefore the Attic drama was attaining perfec- 
tion at the very time when assembled Greece listened 
with rapt attention to the inspired effusions of his 
lyric muse. His genius, however, was totally inde- 
pendent of Attic taste, and had nothing in common 
with it; and although his earliest composition was 
probably written but three years before iEschylus 
exhibited his first tragedy, their walks were perfectly 
distinct ; they arrived at eminence by two parallel but 
different paths ; they belonged to different schools of 
art and different ages of poetry. 

With Pindar the independent existence of Dorian 
lyric poetry ceased, whilst iEschylus was the founder 
of the drama strictly so called, which only incorpo- 
rated lyric odes as adjuncts, and assigned them a 
place, which gradually became more and more sub- 
ordinate. But whilst Pindar is considered as belong- 

vol. i. o 



194 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ing to the earlier period of Greek literary history, it 
must not be forgotten that the era in which he 
flourished was preeminently fitted for the develop- 
ment of his genius. The germ of Greek national 
talent was just unfolding itself. At the festivals 
where Pindar sang his songs of triumph, assembled 
Greece was now beginning to feel, for the first time, 
her greatness as one united nation. The Greeks 
were now ready to act in concert in any great enter- 
prize ; they were already animated by that oneness of 
spirit which, notwithstanding occasional defections 
and treacherous desertions from the national cause, 
enabled them successfully to resist the power of 
Persia. Pindar, though a Dorian, could regard Ionian 
Athens without jealousy as the centre of that union 
around which the rest of Greece was grouped and 
clustered ; and in the presence of Greeks of every 
race and blood congregated at their games, which were 
the symbols of union, he could extol her praises with- 
out fearing to excite Dorian jealousy. The ground on 
which Pindar took his stand was a neutral one, in 
which all Greeks could meet without any worse feel- 
ings than a spirit of generous rivalry. 

Pindar, the greatest of all Greek lyric poets, was 
born at Cynoscephalse, a Theban village in the native 
country of Hesiod and Corinna. The date of his birth 
is, according to Matthise, 01. lxv. 3, B.C. 517, but Clin- 
ton places it one year earlier, and Miiller in B.C. 522. 

The Persian war, whilst it concentrated the warlike 
spirit of Greece in one united effort, and thus assured 



POETRY NOT INDIGENOUS IN BCEOTIA. 195 

her safe position amongst the nations of the world, 
gave strength and vigour and enthusiasm to the poetic 
faculty. Still, however, poetry was the wild out- 
pourings of inspiration ; it disdained the rules of art ; 
it could not be criticised according to any principles 
of taste. But when the war was over, and tran- 
quillity ensured, and the ascendancy of Athens esta- 
blished, and thus itself elevated to the rank of a 
capital of Greece, it became a school of poetry, and 
the art did not depend upon the independent taste of 
each individual poet, but seemed to recognize some 
general scientific principles. 

It has already been said, that the literary and 
poetic talent of Boeotia, as exhibited in Hesiod and his 
school, was not indigenous, but was introduced from 
foreign climes. A band of settlers from Asia formed 
a settlement in her fertile plains, and the pastoral 
valleys hidden in the recesses of her mountains. The 
Theban Cadmus, the literary civilizer of Greece, is 
fabled to have come from Tyre. The Phoenician colo- 
nists, together with letters, introduced poetry, and 
sowed those seeds which afterwards brought forth fruit 
in their adopted country. The poetry of those Se- 
mitic nations from which they came, contained, as we 
see in the sacred writings, every species of composi- 
tion, with the exception of the dramatic alone. The 
worship of Dionysus probably prevailed in early ages 
in this land of grapes and vineyards, and, together 
with its wild dithyrambic poetry, was soon natu- 
ralized in Thebes and its territory. His worship 

o 2 



196 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

was a rural worship, and its rites and ceremonies 
were naturally adapted to the rural habits of the 
Boeotian agriculturists and herdsmen. The music of 
the flute, the favourite instrument of Dionysiac wor- 
ship, soon began to be heard, where hitherto had only 
been heard the harp of the Ismenian Apollo. The 
worship of the Sun God and the Wine God became 
amalgamated ; and soon the wilder and more licen- 
tious foreign rites supplanted the purer worship of 
their older deity in the affections of a rude and 
coarse-minded people. This is a brief sketch of the 
probable origin of that Boeotian poetry which Pindar 
and his fair instructors and rivals, Myrtis and Corinna, 
brought to perfection. The epic poetry of Hesiod 
and his school had taken its external form from that 
which was prevalent in Ionia. This school had now 
ceased for centuries, and in the choral worship of 
Dionysus originated the wild ode of Pindar. 

The worship of Dionysus was joyous and exhila- 
rating, like the wine of which he was the patron. 
The shrill accompaniment of the flute was therefore 
better adapted to its romping dances than the stately 
lyre. The early Greek flute was like the fife; its 
tones sharp, lively, thrilling, and it produced that in- 
spiriting effect which renders the fife so suitable to 
martial music. This kind, therefore, of instrumental 
music was much cultivated in Boeotia, and the father 
of Pindar, whose name is said to have been Daiphan- 
tus, was a flute-player; but Pindar's genius disdained 
to confine itself to his paternal profession. He went 



LIFE OF PINDAR. 197 

to Athens, and became a pupil of Lasus, the dithy- 
rambic poet, to learn the laws of metrical arrange- 
ment, so far as they were then understood, and the 
theory of adapting poetry to the necessary accompa- 
niments of music and dancing. It is probable, how- 
ever, that Pindar had not much education, for he 
reproaches Simonides and his nephew, Bacchylides, 
with being (juddovreg, as though he felt the truth of 
the proverb, that a man must be born a poet, but 
cannot be made one. 

At an early age, B.C. 502, he wrote his tenth Py- 
thian, in honour of a noble Thessalian, named Hip- 
pocles. His reputation soon spread throughout Greece 
and her colonies, and even all those countries of 
Europe which were accustomed to send their distin- 
guished natives as competitors at the games. 

No nation ever felt a more ardent thirst for fame 
and distinction than the Greeks, they lived upon 
praise, they were eminently social, and therefore 
nothing was so valuable to them as the position which 
they occupied in the eyes of others. They felt that 
the aid of such a poet as Pindar was essential to the 
attainment of this end ; and, therefore, every tribute 
of affection and respect was universally lavished upon 
the Boeotian bard. All felt that on his tribute of 
praise depended immortality. Athens appointed him 
her resident irgo%evog, or consul, at Thebes, and pre- 
sented him with ten thousand drachmae, and, after 
his death, honoured him with a statue. a But the 
a Isocr. ITfpt 'Avrtc). Pausan. i. 8. 



198 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

most generous of all his patrons was Hiero of Sy- 
racuse. This munificent promoter of literature, as we 
have seen, occupied in Sicily a place similar to that 
of Pisistratus at Athens. At his refined and polished 
court all literary men found kindness and protection. 

Four years he resided at the court of Hiero, but 
his usual residence was Thebes. He was not made 
to be a courtier ; his was a noble, truthful, independent 
spirit, which could praise, but not flatter. Politics 
and public affairs, which were alien to the subjects 
of his poetry, had no interest for him; but he was 
always ready to use his influence as a poet to quell 
those factious disputes which even then distracted 
Thebes, and his heart was ever open to sympathise 
with the sorrows of his countrymen, as well as to 
celebrate their triumphs and victories. The time of 
his death is as uncertain as that of his birth, but he 
is said to have attained the age of eighty years. The 
style of his poetry was as varied as his metrical har- 
monies. He wrote dithyrambs, odes to be sung at 
processions and by female choruses, encomiums, 
dirges, scolia, hyporchemes, and epinician, or tri- 
umphal odes. With the exception of fragments and 
quotations, none are preserved except the epinicia, 
but the care with which these have been handed down 
from generation to generation justifies the assumption 
that they are the most valuable of his works. 

The odes of Pindar cannot be classed in point of 
style with any other species of poetry, although parts 
of them resemble and partake of the nature of all 



EPINICIAN ODES. 199 

kinds. The mythological epic, the mournful elegy, 
the didactic nome, the triumphal dithyramb, the 
sacred paean, have all and each of them their coun- 
terparts in his poems, but still these poems form 
a species by themselves. Hence ancient critics ap- 
plied to them the title of iilrj, a term which implies 
specific poems coming under no certain designation. 

The epinician odes were composed in honour of 
the victor at the four great games of Greece, and 
therefore are arranged in four divisions, the Olympian, 
Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. Amongst them, 
however, are found a few in honour of conquerors at 
other subordinate festivals. 

The return of a victor at the games to his native 
city, was an event celebrated with public rejoicings 
and solemn religious thanksgivings. A procession 
welcomed the successful hero, and attended him to 
the temple, sacrifices were offered, and the banquet 
which usually accompanied sacrifices followed. The 
triumphal ode, the principal feature in the solemnity, 
was sung, partly like the strophes and antistrophes of 
the dramatic chorus, as the procession moved along, 
partly like the stasima and epodes during intervals 
of rest. The festival was prolonged to a late hour, 
and ended with a joyous revel, which was called 
zaJ(Log. At this revel the praises of the victor were 
again sung, and the poem which celebrated them was, 
from its being sung in the comus, termed an enco- 
mium. 

Besides his general merit as a poet, the peculiar 



200 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

skill which Pindar exhibited, was the interweaving 
other cognate incidents with the immediate subject 
of his poem. The praise of the steeds and their 
owner, the merits of the athlete and the musician, 
would not have afforded sufficient variety ; and there- 
fore digressions, suggested by their names and persons, 
formed the staple materials of his odes. 

Plutarch asserts that Corinna recommended him 
to produce variety of effect by embodying in his odes 
mythological traditions, and, if this be true, to her first 
he may have been indebted for his peculiar artifice. 

These mythical traditions form a large portion of 
many odes, but they are never out of place, they are 
always suggested by the subject ; and though at times 
they are so long as to deserve the reproof with which 
Corinna qualified her instruction, " one ought to sow 
with the hand, not with the whole bag," they are not 
introduced without reason. At one time an apoph- 
thegm containing a mythical allusion, leads him to sub- 
join the whole legend in an expanded form; at another, 
the descent of the victor from heroic ancestors, na- 
turally leads to the celebration of their exploits ; at 
another, he connects the hero's family history with 
the ancient legends of the country to which he be- 
longs. This was a fruitful source of imagery. The 
glory of the individual was considered as reflecting 
credit on his country, the personal interest of the 
Greek was absorbed and merged in that of his na- 
tive land, and his victory was considered a national 
triumph. Hence every glorious recollection of ancient 



CHARACTERISTICS OF PINDAR'S POETRY. 201 

times adapted to display national greatness, became 
a topic for the poet, certain of being acceptable to 
his hearers. 

In the odes of Pindar are visible the true majesty 
and grandeur of religious poetry, and the religious 
character of his mind, as well as his firm belief in a 
superintending providence, would not permit him to 
connect success with mere human causes. He always 
represents the gods as the givers of victory, and speaks 
of piety, and the fulfilment of relative duties, as the 
causes which recommended the conqueror to their 
favour. 

Nor did he neglect to warn the victor of the 
dangers of success, and the temptations which it offers 
to overweening pride. Humility, gratitude, and mo- 
deration in victory, are to him subjects of praise, and 
of the moral lessons which he teaches to those whose 
victories he is at the same time celebrating. 

The above are a few of the most striking charac- 
teristics of Pindar's poetry. It is not surprising that 
this proneness to digress and to depart far from his 
main subject, to which allusion has been made, and the 
overflowing stream of imagery which the analogical 
power of his mind supplied, render his plan confused, 
and his style full of obscurity. Like one hurried 
down the rapids of a river, and whirled round in its 
numerous eddies, the reader's head gets confused and 
loses sight of the poet's ideas from their very number 
and the rapidity with which he passes by them. 

The great feature of his mind was rapidity in 



202 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

seeing analogies and resemblances ; one idea leads to 
another connected with it, and the poet is insensibly 
led away by a long train and succession of ideas, 
in which a connexion can always be traced, although 
he saw them far more quickly than the reader can 
hope to follow him. 

The criticism of Horace accurately describes this 
characteristic of the Pindaric ode. 

Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres 
Quern super notas aluere ripas 
Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo 
Pindarus ore. 

Hor. Od. iv. ii. 

The just and discriminating taste of the same Latin 
poet pronounced a judgment, the truth of which has 
been proved by the experience of every succeeding 
generation, namely, that his powers defy imitation or 
rivalry. 

Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari, 
Iule, ceratis ope Daedalea 
Nititur pennis, vitreo daturus 

Nomina ponto. 

Hon. Od. iv. ii. 

The rhythm of Pindar's metres appear to be, more 
than those of any other ancient poet, under the in- 
fluence of music; and the imperfect knowledge of 
Greek music which we possess, renders his metrical 
harmonies so difficult to analyse and explain. 

So much, however, as this is clear, that there was 
a recognized inseparable connexion between music 
and poetry, and that certain metres were considered 
as especially suited to each of the different modes. 



DORIAN, iEOLIAN, AND LYDIAN ODES. 203 

Now, originally, there were only three modes, the 
Lydian, Phrygian, and Dorian. Afterwards, two more 
were introduced, the Ionian below, the iEolian above 
the Phrygian in musical pitch. The Ionian was a 
modification of the Phrygian, the iEolian of the 
Lydian. The graver and more stately metres were 
considered as more suitable to that mode of which the 
pitch was lower, whilst more appropriate expression 
was supposed to be given to rapid and lively mea- 
sures by that higher pitch which is always allowed to 
impart greater brilliancy of tone. If, then, the as- 
sumption be correct that the epinician odes of Pindar 
can be divided into Dorian, iEolian, and Lydian, 
according to the musical mode for which they are 
best adapted, the metre can be our only guide in this 
classification. The Dorian odes will be those of which 
the style is most epic in character, the systems gen- 
erally dactylic, and in which the structure of the 
verse approaches most nearly to the hexametrical 
rhythm. As the rhythm became lighter and more rapid, 
we should be inclined to consider that the musical 
accompaniment would be of a higher pitch, and so 
long as they were of an intermediate or mixed cha- 
racter, they might be classed as iEolian. Lastly, the 
brilliant Lydian mode must be confined to those odes 
which abound in the tripping dancing trochees, the 
liveliest and the gayest of all the Greek metrical 
systems. It may be still a matter of question whether 
there are sufficient grounds for this arbitrary arrange- 
ment of the odes of Pindar. 



204 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

POETRY NATURALLY PRECEDES PROSE COMPOSITION. — CAUSES WHICH 

PROBABLY LED TO THE INTRODUCTION OF PROSE WRITING. THE 

CHANGE GRADUAL. — INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES. — THE 

ERA OF THE SEVEN SAGES. PERIANDER. — PITTACUS. — THALES. 

SOLON. CLEOBULUS. BIAS. CHILON. — SACERDOTAL AND ORPHIC 

LITERATURE. IONIA THE PARENT OF PROSE LITERATURE AS WELL 

AS OF POETRY. THE LOGOGRAPHI. THE CHARACTER OF THEIR 

WORKS. THEIR AUTHORITY. — CADMUS. — ACUSILAUS. HECAT^JUS. 

Poetry being the natural and spontaneous language 
of the emotions, constitutes, as is evident, the only lite- 
rature in that period of mingled rudeness and refine- 
ment which lies between barbarism and advanced 
civilization. It is the natural outpouring and overflow 
of the feelings — it recognises no artificial limitations 
except the laws of metrical harmony and the metaphy- 
sical principles of grammar which the human mind, 
from its natural constitution, cannot disregard. It is 
the language of the imagination, and therefore of the 
creative and perceptive powers ; but it makes little de- 
mand upon the logical and reflective faculties. Prose 
writing, on the contrary, implies that all the intellec- 
tual powers are in a higher state of advancement, and 
more equally balanced : it is an effort not merely of 
genius but of reason. Hence many changes take place 



INTRODUCTION OF PROSE COMPOSITION. 205 

in the subjects on which the human intellect is em- 
ployed before any alteration takes place in the outward 
form. Even the apparently uncongenial subjects of 
moral, physical, and political philosophy, enter into a 
national literature before it throws off the trammels of 
metre, and appears in the plainer but unusual, and less 
popular garb of prose composition. The introduction 
of prose literature was at first, probably, a matter of 
necessity, and afterwards of convenience. The in- 
creased extent of human experience, the wider field 
of knowledge and practical wisdom which began to be 
gradually explored, absolutely demanded the unre- 
strained freedom of prose. Either investigation must 
have been retarded or even stopped in its career, or 
some freer form substituted for the communication of 
ideas. Increased facility, moreover, in the art of writ- 
ing, would have a tendency to produce the same result. 
The rapidity of human thought was unwilling to sub- 
mit to unnecessary restraint when writing materials of 
a more convenient form furnished readier means of 
expression. But, notwithstanding the necessities of 
the case, the change was slow and gradual. 

In that epoch which is commonly called the era of the 
" Seven Wise Men of Greece," no complete separation 
had taken place between philosophy and poetry. These 
great men, whose names have been handed down to 
succeeding ages as the luminaries of their age, stand, 
as it were, upon the debatable land between the 
poetical and philosophical ages ; they were not undis- 
tinguished as poets, but, nevertheless, they owe their 



206 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

reputation principally to their moral, political, and 
philosophical wisdom. The subjects of contemplation 
which interested the Greek mind, were now in a tran- 
sition state. The motives and principles of human 
conduct were beginning to be examined and analyzed 
in a more philosophical spirit ; but the results of obser- 
vation, whether moral or political, were expressed in 
verse even more frequently than in prose. The poli- 
tical state of Greece, moreover, at this period, caused 
legislative wisdom and an ability to deal with great 
social questions to be more highly valued than they 
had hitherto been, and the title of ao(p6g, or sage, was 
conferred on him who benefited his fellow-creatures 
by his practical knowledge, and illustrated his intel- 
lectual preeminence by his moral virtues. 

Revolutions were now taking place throughout the 
different Grecian states. The limited hereditary mon- 
archies (tfurgUoii fiuaikziui In) pqTo7g yi^MGi a ) were de- 
caying ; the aristocracies of birth were crumbling away. 
The scenes of bloodshed, the rending asunder of civil 
society necessarily preceding the introduction of free 
institutions among communities which had con- 
ceived a desire for them, but were not as yet suffi- 
ciently prepared to receive them, set men thinking on 
political subjects. The exigencies of the times turned 
the attention of deep and serious thinkers, who in the 
previous age would have been the poets of their times, 
to subjects of practical interest, to devise means for 
remedying these social evils. But the legislator, the 

a Thucyd. i. 



LAWS WRITTEN IN VERSE. 207 

popular leader, and the tyrant, who devoted themselves 
to these studies, wrote in hexameters or elegiacs their 
practical precepts and wise admonitions ; nay, even 
the laws which they enacted for the benefit of the 
state. The laws of Charondas were, according to Her- 
mippus, written in verse, and even sung at banquets ; a 
and hence, probably, the application of the same term, 
v6(juog, both to a law and a metrical composition. 1 * 
The ancient Roman laws were likewise written in 
verse, and it is also said that the Turdetani in Spain 
had metrical laws. 

To this distinguished body belonged Zaleucus, the 
law-giver of the Epizephyrian Locrians ; Charondas, the 
Catanian ; and Epimenides of Crete, whose skill in cere- 
monies of purification caused him to be called in to 
purify Athens (b.c. 598), from the guilt and pollution 
which were considered as attaching to it, from the mas- 
sacre of Cylon and his followers (b.c. 612). But his fame 
is built upon a more stable foundation, namely, that he 
was the friend and assistant of Solon in framing his 
code of laws. Thus they addressed themselves to the 
feelings and old literary prejudices of the people ; and 
even the guests at the social board listened to the 
words of wisdom, instead of mere legends and heroic 
lays. These sages, because of the practical tendency 
of their compositions, deserved the title of, and pre- 
pared the way for, that class of writers which were after- 
wards called Gnomic poets, as well as for those who, 
like iEsop, veiled their words of wisdom and rules of 
a Athenseus, xiv. 3. b Arist. Prob. xix. 



208 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

life under the enigmatical form of apologues, or fables 
{kitohoyo^ (avQoi), and still later for prose composition 
generally and the laborious investigations of the great 
philosophical schools, Asia and Greece. 

When speaking of the Seven Sages, it must be re- 
rembered, that this number is a mere arbitrary one ; 
different names have been given, of those who were 
to be admitted into this body; by some the number 
has been increased to eleven, or even more, whilst 
Plutarch and others mention only five. 

The four universally recognised, are Thales, Bias, Pit- 
tacus, and Solon; and the number is usually com- 
pleted by the addition of Cleobulus, Chilo, and 
Periander. 

The list authorised by Plato, a is identical with that 
given above, with the exception of substituting Myson, 
a native of the obscure village of Chense, of whose 
claims history is silent, in the place of Periander. 

According to Demetrius Phalereus, and all the best 
authorities, the epoch at which the Seven Wise Men 
were so named, was the archonship of Damasias, B.C. 586. 

The following legendary tale is told respecting 
them. A golden tripod was found in the nets of some 
Milesian fishermen, and the Delphian oracle being 
asked whose it should be, decreed that it should be 
given to the wisest man. The fishermen naturally 
thought of their distinguished countryman Thales. 
He, however, modestly declined it, and offered it to 
Bias of Priene. Thus it passed through the hands of 
a Protag. p. 343. 



THE SEVEN SAGES. 209 

the seven in succession, and Solon, who received it 
last, dedicated it to Apollo, as alone worthy to be 
called " the wise." 

These sages lived between the years B.C. 665 and 
B.C. 540. 

Periander, the earliest of them, succeeded Cypselus 
as tyrant of Corinth, about B.C. 625. His public and 
private character have both been vehemently assailed, 
but only by those whose political principles rendered 
them his bitterest enemies. The times in which he 
ruled, made severe measures necessary, and these were 
easily misrepresented as tyrannical. The vigour with 
which he suppressed the aristocratic institutions of 
the Dorians, prove him to have been a friend to free 
and popular ones. a In all respects, he appears to have 
been a wise politician, a maintainer of public morality, 
a friend to commerce, and a munificent patron of art 
and literature. 5 The duration of his tyranny, and 
therefore the time of his death, is uncertain. It is 
not improbable that he owes his place amongst the 
Wise Men of Greece, rather to his political position 
than his literary eminence. A friend of wise men, 
and a promoter of learning, he displayed those quali- 
fications for which the Greek rvguvvoi were universally 
distinguished, the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, 
but he seems to have been a patron rather than a 
philosopher. 

Pittacus was born at Mytilene, B.C. 652. d His father 

* Miiller, i. 8, 3. b Arist. Pol. c Thucyd. vi. 

d Suidas, s. v. 

VOL. I. P 



210 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

is said to have been a Thracian, his mother a Lesbian. 
In the revolution in B.C. 612, he, with Alcseus, 
joined the aristocratic faction. Six years later, he 
distinguished himself in a battle with the Athenians, 
in which Alcseus, like his imitator Horace at Philippi, 
left his shield, and fled from the field of battle. 
After a succession of rvgmvoi, Pittacus was at length 
chosen chief ruler of the state, abvpvqrqQ, a jurisdic- 
tion which he successfully administered during ten 
years, and then resigned it, at the request of the 
Lesbians. 

Aristotle, a on the authority of the poet Alcaeus, as- 
serts that Pittacus was a tyrant in the modern sense 
of the term, but the general testimony of antiquity 
is in favour of his virtue and patriotism. His cha- 
racter is usually described as consistent with two of 
his remarkable sayings, " A victory should be gained 
without bloodshed," and " Speak not evil of friends, 
or even of enemies." 

He died b.c. 569, having written six hundred 
elegiac verses, and a prose work, in defence of his 
laws. 

Thales, the most distinguished of the number, the 
founder of the Ionian philosophy, was born at Miletus, 
about B.C. 63 5. b In addition to the practical wisdom 
which obtained for him a place among the Seven Sages, 
his scientific investigations caused him to be regarded 
by Aristotle, as the first discoverer of mathematical 

a Pol. iii. 10. b Diog. Laert. i. 37 ; Clinton, p. 7. 

1 Arist. Metaph. 



THALES, SOLON, CLEOBULUS. 211 

and physical philosophy. He is said to have calcu- 
lated the solar eclipse which took place B.C. 609, and 
his engineering skill was exhibited in turning the 
course of the Halys, at the command of Croesus.* 

Solon, the celebrated Athenian archon and legis- 
lator, was born about B.C. 638. The date of his 
archonship was B.C. 594. He was related maternally 
to the family of Pisistratus. His practical wisdom 
was the result of personal experience, and acquired 
during foreign travel, in the capacity of a merchant, 
an occupation, which the extravagance of his father 
had rendered necessary. 

To enter upon the subject of Solon's institutions, 
which form the most interesting subject connected 
with his life, would be beside the purpose of this 
history. His poems, which are almost entirely moral 
and political, are more distinguished for their wisdom 
than for any poetical power ; their characteristics are 
simplicity and energy. 

His philosophical acquirements must have been of 
a high order, since Athens was indebted to him for 
the improvement and correction of the calendar, and 
the establishment of the trieteris, or cycle, which 
was completed at the termination of every two 
years. 

Cleobulus was a citizen of Lindus, in Rhodes, and 
a contemporary of Solon. His influence as a legis- 
lator has obtained for him the reputation of having 
been rvgwvos, or, like Pittacus, ahv^r^g of his native 

a Herod, i. 75. 

p2 



212 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

city. Egyptian physical philosophy was by this time 
beginning to find its way into Greece, and Cleobulus 
is said to have been one of its professors ; hence some 
have supposed that he travelled to Egypt, and there 
became instructed in the principles of natural science. 
His fame rests, however, on his moral apophthegms, 
and not on his scientific discoveries. His daughter 
Cleobulina is frequently celebrated by the ancients 
for her elegant accomplishments and amiable hos- 
pitality^ 

Bias b was a native of the Ionian town of Priene, 
and flourished about B.C. 550. Little is recorded of 
him, except a few maxims of practical wisdom and 
proverbial sayings, and the fact related by Diogenes 
Laertius, that, after having pleaded a cause success- 
fully, he died suddenly at a good old age. 

Chilon was a native of Sparta, and filled the im- 
portant office of ephor. He flourished about B.C. 
596. Herodotus c mentions that when Hippocrates 
was sacrificing at the Olympic festival, the caldrons 
boiled over without fire. Chilon being present, and 
thinking that this prodigy boded ill, advised him not 
to marry a woman likely to have children ; if already 
married, to divorce his wife, and if he had a son, to 
disown him. Notwithstanding this advice, Hippo- 
crates had a son. This was Pisistratus, the head of the 
revolutionary party, and afterwards tyrant of Athens. 

a Clem. Alex. Strom, iv. 19. 

b Herod, i. 27. ; Arist. Rhet, ii. 13. ; Cic. de Am. 16. 

c Herod, i. 59. 



ORPHIC LITERATURE. 213 

He is the reputed author of the celebrated maxim 
ymk aiuvrov (know thyself), and is said to have died 
of joy on his son being proclaimed victor in the 
Olympic games. 

A religious belief existed at this epoch, which 
exercised no slight influence upon literature.* 

The doctrine of a future state and an unseen 
world, had led the poets in their theogonies, to 
people the dark regions beneath the earth with their 
own peculiar deities, the yflovioi Szoi. The worship of 
these deities was of a mysterious nature; the doctrines 
taught, as connected with the immortality of the 
soul, were kept as invisible secrets, except for the 
initiated. Amongst these mysteries, the Eleusinian 
were deemed the most awful ; they were celebrated 
in honour of Demeter, the mother of Persephone, 
queen of the unseen world, who, every year snatched 
away from earth, was every year supposed to return in 
pristine beauty. By this myth was typified death, and 
the descent of the body into the grave, and the resto- 
ration of the soul to life and immortality. But be- 
sides these, there were other mysteries in honour 
of a Dionysus, who, according to some post-Homeric 
theogony, was considered a Chthonian deity . b Those 
who were initiated in them, professed to be dedicated 
to the mythic poet Orpheus, and, instead of attaching 
an idea of secrecy to their revelations, embodied 
them in the form of odes and. hymns, which are 

a Muller's Hist. Greek Literature, 233, &c. 
b Herod, ix. 81. 



214 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

known by the name of Orphic poems. Thus, then, 
in the devotees of this worship, is visible the mixed 
character of priest and poet. They did not keep their 
doctrines secret, like the mysterious worshippers of 
Demeter ; their enthusiasm, developed in poetry, ex- 
tended beyond the inner circle of their own disciples, 
and influenced the popular creed. Hence they be- 
came invested with supernatural functions ; the know- 
ledge of the divine will and a spirit of prophecy 
were attributed to them, and they were believed to 
possess the power of influencing and propitiating 
the gods themselves. 

Amongst these sacerdotal poets, were Epimenides, 
whose priestly character has already been alluded to, 
Pherecydes of Syros, and Abaris, who is commonly 
called the Hyperborean. 

The lives of these sacerdotal authors belong to 
tradition rather than history, and in them there is 
consequently a large admixture of fabulous legend. 

Epimenides. 

Epimenides a is said to have been the son of a 
nymph of Crete, and a story is told of him which has 
found its way into the literature of other countries. 
It is said, that, overcome by the heat of the sun, he 
fell asleep in a cave, and so remained for fifty-seven 
years. Whilst he retained his youth, he found to his 
surprise, on his return home, that his brother had 
a Diog. Laert. i. 109. 



EPIMENIDES, PHERECYDES. 215 

become an old man. Many works on ceremonial and 
genealogical subjects are attributed to him, but it is 
probable that scarcely any of them are genuine. 
Cicero a gives Epimenides the title of propheta, and 
St. Paul, who, from passages in his writings, 5 appears 
to have been well versed in Greek literature, quotes a 
line from his writings, in the Epistle to Titus. c 

"One of themselves, even a prophet of their own. 
said, ' The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow 
bellies.' " 

Pherecydes. 

Pherecydes, d although the period at which he flou- 
rished is uncertain, probably lived about B.C. 548. 
He is said to have been the first prose writer on 
philosophical subjects ; but even if this be the case, 
he can scarcely be termed a philosopher. Philosophi- 
cal investigation did not as yet exist, and although 
speculations on subjects of a philosophical nature were 
doubtless now paving the way for legitimate inquiry, 
they were, nevertheless, imitations and adaptations of 
the doctrines taught by the poets of the Hesiodic and 
Orphic schools. That he taught the doctrine of the 
metempsychosis, perhaps led to the prevalent belief 
that from him Pythagoras derived this portion of his 
system. But in his sacerdotal and prophetical cha- 
racter Pherecydes was more celebrated than as a poet 
and a philosopher. 

a De Divin. b See 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Acts xvii. 28. 

c Tit. i. 12. d Suidas; Cic. Tusc. i. 16. 



216 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Abaris. 

To relate the various traditions respecting Abaris 
would be beyond the compass of this work. He is 
called a Hyperborean, 3 which implies that he was 
devoted to the worship of Apollo ; the unknown 
regions north of the Caucasus being considered as 
under the protection of that deity. He cured dis- 
eases, lived without food, and was supposed to be the 
author of a theogony in prose. b The best authorities 
fix the time at which he flourished about B.C. 570. 
Such was the literature of the period which imme- 
diately preceded and introduced prose composition. 

Although the Muse of Greece had her European 
dwelling-place amongst the Pierians in the valleys 
of Parnassus and Helicon, and was nurtured there by 
Hesiod and his countrymen, it was in Ionia that she 
attained her maturity and perfection. Moreover, on 
tracing the gradual progress and development of 
Greek literature, it is evident that Ionia was not only 
the nurse of early epic poetry, and its protector from 
the influence of Dorian rudeness, but that, with few 
exceptions, literature of every kind was the offspring 
of the Ionian mind. The influence of Ionian genius 
is visible in the satire of the iambic metre, the plain- 
tive sadness and martial enthusiasm or the terse 
neatness of the elegy, the wisdom of didactic poetry, 
and the wit of parody and fable, and, in later times, 
the peculiar characteristic part of the Greek drama, 
a Herod, iv. 36. b Lobeck's Aglaoph. 



RELATION OF PROSE TO POETRY. 217 

both tragedy and comedy, is due to the Attic branch 
of the Ionian race. The Ionian Greeks also were the 
earliest authors of prose as well as of poetry. 

In investigating the origin of prose literature, it 
must be remembered that the object of Greek poetry 
was recitation. Previous to the invention of writing 
it was necessarily confined to this ; and even after this 
epoch the scarcity and inconvenience of materials for 
writing caused authors to compose their works for 
hearers and not for readers. The time for recitation, 
too, was the hours of relaxation, the banquet, and the 
symposium, and when the art of music was cultivated, 
and a species of poetry introduced adapted to siuging 
instead of recitation, the cheering notes of the harp or 
flute accompanied the inspiration of the lyric bard. 

Poetry was, therefore, as has been observed, on all 
these accounts, the appropriate vehicle of thought, 
and even when a more philosophical and observant 
age demanded a more exact and perspicuous method 
of communicating knowledge, poetry for some time 
furnished the source from which the prose writers 
drew their stores. The logographi, as they were 
called, took the theogonies, the genealogies, and the 
vague philosophical speculations of their predeces- 
sors, the epic poets, translated them, as it were, into 
unmetrical and unadorned language, and invested 
legendary tales, mythological fables, traditional pedi- 
grees, or the physical hypotheses of a poetical ima- 
gination, with earnestness, reality, and truthfulness. 

The fact that the later epic poetry wore more of a 



218 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

didactic garb, and exhibited more reflectiveness and 
more intimate acquaintance with the human heart 
and with the springs of moral action, prepares us to 
expect that when thought once indulged in the un- 
restrained freedom of prose, it would also devote itself 
to historical and philosophical inquiry. This proves 
to be the case ; but an examination of what is known 
respecting the earliest historical writers will show 
that, in these rude beginnings, there was no logical 
connexion between the events narrated, scarcely even 
any historical order. No distinction was made be- 
tween real and fictitious accounts, probably because, 
in the absence of personal observation and historical 
investigation, all were esteemed of equal value. Thu- 
cydides a tells us that popular traditions were generally 
received without inquiry as to their authenticity, and 
that people took little trouble to search after truth. 
The logographers collected together the traditions 
of the principal cities, and interspersed them with 
legends of gods and heroes, derived from poetical 
sources. They cared more for amusement than in- 
struction; they compiled their accounts not so much 
with a view to truth, as to give pleasure to their 
hearers. 5 The principle on which they generally en- 
deavoured to arrange their materials was a geogra- 
phical one. This plan of arrangement indicates that 
the leading ideas which had possession of their minds 
were rather those of a poet than of an historian. They 
were derived from the wonders of mythology and tra- 
a Thucyd. Hist. ii. 134. b Ibid. i. 21. 



WRITINGS OF THE LOGOGRAPHI. 219 

dition, and from the picturesque features of countries 
which had become known to them by hearsay or ob- 
servation. These they would describe in a plain and 
simple style, and then, ^itb all the artlessness of 
children, relate the wonderful tales and traditions 
connected with them. a Such topics as these were full 
of interest for their hearers. They would sit for hours 
listening with breathless attention to the marvels of 
foreign lands, some of which were familiar to them, 
others only known by report, in the same way that 
the Italian will listen to the story-teller of modern 
times. 

Traces of this principle of connexion may be found 
at a more advanced epoch of historical literature, in 
the digressions of the later and better arranged his- 
tories of Herodotus. Small as must have been their 
real value, as vehicles of historic truth, the works of 
these logographi were looked upon as possessing some 
authority by the geographer Strabo and the historian 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus. 

It is evident from the above description, which is as 
specific as the sources from which our information is 
derived, that, although these writings are termed his- 
torical, there was nothing in them, excepting, perhaps, 
those of Hecataeus, approaching to historical records 
or annals. The Greeks, perhaps from want of union 
amongst themselves, and the consequent jealousy 
which existed between the different states into which 

a Dion. Hal. yi. 819 j Cic. de Or. ii. 12 ; Thucyd. i. 21. 



220 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Greece was divided, or from there being amongst 
them no single individual whose personal vanity, like 
that of Eastern monarchs, would seek for monumental 
records of his exploits, had no national fasti ; they 
seemed, in fact — until Herodotus, by the brilliance 
and liveliness of his talents, gave a living interest to 
those scenes in which Greece had played so heroic 
a part — to undervalue the exploits of their own imme- 
diate ancestors, whilst absorbed in those of the heroic 
age. We look in vain, therefore, for such records as 
the pictorial inscriptions which enable us to determine 
and arrange the dynasties of Egypt, and the ancient 
cuneiform characters which promise hereafter to throw 
such light upon the histories of Assyria, Nineveh, and 
Babylon. The deficiency under which Greek history 
labours, in this respect, stands out in still stronger con- 
trast to the accurate, because inspired, literary records 
of the Jewish people. The theocracy amongst the 
Jews, and the monarchies of other Eastern nations, by 
different methods, produced similar historical results. 
God's immediate government of his chosen people has 
enriched us with a history of his dealings with man, 
authenticated by the infallibility of inspiration; and 
respect for a monarch, or the spirit of flattery, or 
personal vanity, has stored up in sculpture and paint- 
ing almost imperishable chronicles of the Oriental 
and Egyptian dynasties. These are the true materials 
of history, but they are not found in the first logogra- 
phic literature of Greece. 

The earliest of these quasi-historians, who belong 



CADMUS, ACUSILAUS. 221 

to that period of literary history, which is contained 
in this book, were Cadmus and Hecatseus of Miletus, 
and Acusilaus of Argos. Pherecydes, of the island 
of Leros, belongs to the second or flourishing period 
of Greek literature. 

Cadmus, (about) B.C. 540. 

Cadmus is evidently confounded by Suidas with 
the Cadmus of mythical tradition, for he speaks of 
him as the introducer into Greece of the Phoenician 
alphabet. Josephus a states that he flourished soon 
after the Persian invasion, but the common opinion 
is, that he lived and wrote about B.C. 540. b Tradition 
speaks of him as the author of an historical work, on 
the foundation of Miletus and colonization of Ionia 
(xriffug M.i\rjrov zcct ''lavi'ctg). In what way he treated 
the subject, it is impossible to say, for it has perished ; 
and Dionysius pronounces the work bearing his name, 
which was extant in the Augustine age, to be a 
forgery. 

Acusilaus. 

Although Acusilaus was a native of Argos, he 
forms no exception to the statement already made, 
that Ionia was the nurse of the earliest historical 
literature of Greece; for so imbued was his mind 
with Ionic taste and intellectual cultivation, that 
the dialect in which he wrote was the Ionian. 

a Josephus, c. Apion. i. 2. b Miiller, Hist. Greek Lit. 



222 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

What traces we possess of him prove, that his works 
consisted of a transcript in prose of the legends 
belonging to the mythical era, and some genealogies 
translated from Hesiod. Suidas a was not acquainted 
with any writings of Acusilaus, but only asserts that 
he compiled some genealogies from brazen plates, 
discovered by his father. The time when he flou- 
rished is uncertain, but it was, probably, soon after 
the age of Cadmus. 

Hecatjeus, (about) B.C. 540. 

Hecatseus is well-known to us, through the history 
of Herodotus, not only as a celebrated historian 
(XoyoKOiog), but also as taking a part in the political 
affairs of his country. When Aristagoras was per- 
suading the Ionians to revolt, he endeavoured, though 
unsuccessfully, to dissuade them from the attempt. 5 
Again, on the invasion of Ionia, by the Persian satrap 
Artaphernes, he recommended Aristagoras, as a tem- 
porary measure, to fortify and occupy the island of 
Leros. c In this case also his prudent counsels were 
disregarded. Both Miiller and Suidas place the epoch 
at which he wrote, earlier than these times of national 
difficulties. The former B.C. 540, the latter B.C. 520. 
If the testimony borne to his character is to be 
depended upon, the statesmanlike views exhibited 
in his public career are sufficient proof that he was 
fitted for discharging the duty of an historian, and the 

a Suidas ; Fragm. Acus. Museum Crit. i. 216 ; Plato, Symp. 
b Herod, v. 36. c Ibid. v. 124. 



HISTORY OF HECAT7EUS. 223 

account we have of his love of foreign travel bears 
similar testimony to his probable faithfulness as a 
geographer. 4 His historical work was genealogical, 
and the sources from which he drew his materials 
were similar to those of his contemporaries; but still, 
unlike them, he appears to have applied a critical 
and philosophical spirit to the separation of that 
which appeared to be true, from that which was 
evidently traditional. 

He was, however, like other logographers, infected 
with a belief in mythical genealogies, for Herodotus 5 
tells us, that he boasted, in the presence of the 
Egyptian priests, that he was the sixteenth in descent 
from a god. They are said to have completely refuted 
him, by the superior antiquity of their genealogical 
records. On his authority, the same historian rests 
his account of the early Pelasgian history. He was, 
evidently, far in advance of his age, and Herodotus 
had, doubtless, carefully studied his writings; but he 
had compared them with the results of his own 
observation, and, therefore, did not place undue con- 
fidence in him, and was not misled by his errors. 
Hence the unsparing ridicule which he casts upon 
his theory of the disc-like form of the earth, d the 
causes which led to the inundation of the Nile, 
and his romantic story of the sunny island of the 
Hyperboreans. 6 His geographical work bears marks 
of careful personal investigation, it is descriptive 

a Herod, v. 24. b Ibid. ii. 143. c Ibid. vi. 137. 

d Ibid. ii. 21. e Ibid. iv. 13, 33. 



224 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and interspersed with historical notices ; in connexion 
with his geographical knowledge, it must be remem- 
bered, that when Aristagoras visited Cleomenes, king 
of Sparta, in order to invite him to take part in 
the Ionian revolt, he is said to have taken with 
him a map of the country.* From the intimate 
relation in which Hecatseus stood to Aristagoras, it 
is probable that this was his work. At any rate, 
it is the earliest occasion on which this species of 
geographical illustration is mentioned, and it coin- 
cides with the era of Hecatseus. The map spoken of 
by Herodotus was probably founded on the system 
of this eminent geographer. Such progress had the 
Greek language already made, that the Ionic of 
Hecatseus is said to have been even purer than that 
of Herodotus. 

a Herod, v. 49. 



HISTORY OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 225 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GREEK PHILOSOPHY OWED ITS ORIGIN TO THE GREEK MIND, AND NOT 

TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES. INFLUENCE OF RELIGION, POETRY, AND 

POLITICS. PHERECYDES OF SYROS FIRST TREATED OF PHILOSOPHI- 
CAL SUBJECTS. — THERE WAS, HOWEVER, AS YET NO PHILOSOPHICAL 
SYSTEM. THALES THE FIRST PHYSICAL PHILOSOPHER. THE EARLI- 
EST PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES DIFFICULT TO DISCOVER. — THE 
ORIENTAL ORIGIN OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY INSISTED ON BY COM- 
PARATIVELY MODERN AUTHORITIES. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THIS 

THEORY. — PERIOD AT WHICH ORIENTAL DOCTRINES WERE FIRST IN- 
FUSED INTO GREEK PHILOSOPHY. — POINT OF RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN 
THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND POETICAL LITERATURE OF GREECE. — PHI- 
LOSOPHY FOLLOWED THE SUBDIVISIONS OF THE GREEK NATION. — 

THE IONIAN AND DORIAN SCHOOLS. THE ELEATIC SCHOOL ITS 

RELATION TO THE OTHER TWO. 

As philosophy is the expression of human thought, a 
history of Greek philosophy must necessarily obtain a 
place in a history of Greek literature. It has already 
been seen how in the intellectual progress of the 
Greek nation the subjects treated of in poetry became 
more philosophical in their character. The warlike 
adventures of the heroic age, which delight us in the 
Homeric poems, gave place to the theogonies and cos- 
mogonies of Hesiod ; physical and metaphysical theo- 
ries and speculations, — not, indeed, as yet founded on 
induction and observation, but as baseless and fanciful 

VOL. I. Q 



226 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

as the most imaginative poetical effusions — were ex- 
pressed in the same metrical language to which alone 
the popular ear and taste were as yet accustomed. 

It is commonly assumed that the philosophy of 
Greece was of Oriental origin, but with this theory it 
is impossible to reconcile the phenomenon that dif- 
ferent systems sprang up, and opposing schools were 
formed simultaneously and independently of each other. 

If then the spirit of philosophical investigation, 
which was developed so early in the Greek nation, 
owed its beginnings to the Greek mind itself and not 
to foreign influences, the question arises, to what 
influences are we indebted for these invaluable trea- 
sures of intellectual power ? 

The three subjects which exercised the greatest 
influence in forming the Greek mind, and in directing 
its speculations, were religion, poetry, and politics. 
Impressed with a strong and lively sentiment of vene- 
ration for Deity, the Greek, when he began to think, 
was not long in perceiving how abhorrent to all pure 
and high views were the doctrines of the popular 
mythology. Again, when he turned his thoughts 
inward and contemplated his own nature, he naturally 
concluded that so far as man could form a conception 
of a Divine nature, it must be of a Being bearing 
some resemblance to the noblest part of himself, 
namely, his intellect. The same inquiring spirit, 
therefore, which aspired to investigate the laws of the 
universe, and the nature of that one Being or prin- 
ciple by which the order and operations of nature 



ORIGIN OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 227 

were governed, would also seek to trace the operations 
of mind, and the laws which governed the intellect. 
Whilst the germ of philosophy may be thus traced 
even in the very mythical superstitions of Greek po- 
pular religion, a symbolical connection between the 
powers and processes of nature and the ceremonials 
of public worship was maintained by those mysteries 
which were revealed only to the initiated few. The 
popular religion recognized an indwelling of the Di- 
vine presence in every natural phenomenon and every 
visible created thing, and so far recognized also laws 
of nature, and therefore a subject for philosophical 
inquiry. The religion inculcated by the mysteries 
taught that the ceremonies, blindly and ignorantly per- 
formed, were symbolical of certain natural phenomena, 
and therefore prepared the initiated worshippers to 
contemplate not only the phenomena but the laws 
according to which the operations of nature were 
carried on. 

The religion of Greece, as well mystical as popular, 
taught that Nature worked in obedience to the Divine 
laws, and therefore the mind of Greece was thus pre- 
pared to inquire into and speculate upon the laws 
themselves. 

Again, the poetical sentiment led to similar re- 
sults. The devotional and poetical feelings are closely 
connected, and religious sentiments recognize in 
poetry, or in the outpourings of a fervid imagination, 
their appropriate vehicle of expression. 

None felt more deeply than the Greek this close 

Q 2 



228 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

connection which unites the literature of speculative 
thought so closely with that of the imagination. 
Verse was the language of inspiration even in ages 
when prose writing had hecome common ; the revela- 
tions of Deity were given in verse ; a holiness invested 
the character of the poet as the favoured of heaven, 
and as owing his power to influence men's minds 
to direct inspiration. Poetry deals with the ideal, the 
immaterial ; it has to do with imagery ; its subjects 
are the creations of the mind. It invests things 
which have no real existence with a reality, so far as 
mental conceptions are concerned. Hence the same 
faculties which are devoted to the cultivation of 
poetry are easily diverted to the speculations of meta- 
physics, or even to that imaginative system of natural 
science which occupied the minds of the early philo- 
sophers. 

Lastly, the established relations of society and the 
institutions of a state arise out of a conception of 
the moral relations which men bear to one another, 
and, in their turn, exercise a reciprocal influence upon 
the notions which individuals form of these relations. 
Free institutions, such as those which distinguished 
the Ionian race, imply a jealousy, regard to right and 
justice, first as regards ourselves, next as regards any 
interference with the rights of others. It is easy, 
therefore, to see the influence which politics must 
have had upon the high and noble tone which per- 
vades Greek moral philosophy. 

Pherecydes of Syros, who lived in the era of the 



DOCTRINES OF PHERECYDES. 229 

Seven Sages, about the 58th or 59th Olympiad,* is 
said to have first attempted to treat in prose of those 
subjects which may be considered philosophical, arid 
Herodotus b relates that he was one of the earliest 
who wrote on parchment, an invention ascribed to 
the Ionians. 

Living, as he did, in the infancy of philosophy, his 
speculations, though generally termed philosophical, 
were rather theological and mythical. " He stands, 
as it were/' says Aristotle, " on the boundary line 
between mythical poetry and philosophy." Early 
traditions assert that he derived his knowledge from 
the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and hence lie gained 
the reputation of a soothsayer and diviner; but there 
is no better authority for these statements than the 
theory which attributes to Oriental sources the origin 
of Greek philosophy. A belief in the metempsy- 
chosis is also attributed to him, and he is said to have 
taught this doctrine to Pythagoras. 

The passage d quoted by O. M tiller from the frag- 
ments of Pherecydes is the best adapted of any which 
can be adduced to show the nature of these early 
speculations. " Zeus," he writes, " Chronos and 
Chthonia existed from eternity. Chthonia was called 
Ge, since Zeus endowed her with honour." He next 
relates how Zeus transformed himself into Eros, the 
god of love, wishing to form the world from the 
original materials made by Chronos and Chthonia. 

a Matthiee, History of Greek Literature ; Suidas, s. v. 
h Herod, v. 58. c Aristotle, Met. xiv. 4. d Miiller, p. 241. 



230 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

" Zeus makes a large and beautiful garment ; upon it 
he paints Earth and Ogenos (Ocean), and the horses 
of Ogenos, and he spreads the garment over a winged 
oak." This is evidently poetry, although expressed in 
prose ; assertion, and not speculation ; the germ from 
which philosophy was developed, but not philosophy. 
There is here no observation of natural phenomena, 
no attempt to investigate the connection between 
cause and effect ; and yet these are both absolutely 
necessary to constitute a system of physical science. 
Again, in the mythical traditions of Greek religion 
transmitted by the poets, originated many of the 
earliest so called philosophical dogmas. When Homer 
taught that Oceanus and Tethys were the progenitors 
of gods and men, he furnished the germ of the 
physical assumption that all things are in a perpetual 
flux. When Hesiod sang of Chaos and Eros as the 
parents of all existing things, he separated and distin- 
guished matter from the creative cause, a doctrine 
afterwards adopted by the Ionic school. 

As the habit of thought, which led to the specu- 
lations of physical philosophy grew gradually out of 
the mystical fables of religion and the fantastic crea- 
tions of the poets, so the principles of moral philo- 
sophy may first be traced in the isolated apophthegms 
and proverbs of moralists and politicians, like the 
Seven Sages. Observation of human character and 
motives ; of man's political and social relations made 
amidst the difficult and turbulent circumstances of 
Greek public life, rather than thought out in solitude, 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 231 

led these great men to embody the results in short 
and terse sentences, which might make an impression 
by their novelty, and by their brevity be retained in 
the memory. These enunciations of condensed wis- 
dom were not confined to a few, like the obscure 
reasonings aud speculations of systematic philosophy, 
but were understood and appreciated by the people 
generally, and exercised a great influence over the 
popular mind. 

But great as was the reputation which the authors 
of these moral axioms enjoyed as wise and shrewd 
thinkers and sagacious observers of human nature, 
their isolated and unconnected apophthegms were as far 
from constituting a system of moral philosophy as the 
beautiful but fanciful fables, already spoken of, were 
from embodying the true principles of physical inves- 
tigation. Philosophy implies system, and system 
implies not merely a collection of independent dicta, 
however wise and true and well-founded they may be, 
but a logical sequence of cause and effect, a chain 
of propositions deduced in regular order from first 
principles, a mutual dependence of the several parts 
so close that the falsity of one shakes and endangers 
the safety of the whole. 

It is evident that, so far as the progress of the 
Greek mind has as yet been traced, no philosophical 
system, either physical or moral, is discoverable. The 
Hesiodic poets introduced into their poems subjects 
of a philosophic character, but they treated them as 
poets, and not as philosophers. The Orphic poems 



232 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

merely related the legendary wonders of mythical 
religion, although, as they professed, like Hesiod, to 
give an account of what they believed to be the 
history of creation, they gave their poetry a philoso- 
phical appearance. The gnomic poets and the poli- 
tical sages merely expressed the results of their 
observation of human character in isolated axioms. 

Thales alone forms an exception to this assertion 
respecting the absence of philosophical system amongst 
the Greek poets and prose writers who were his pre- 
decessors and contemporaries. He was not only a 
statesman and a moralist, and therefore reckoned 
among the Seven Sages, but he was also the first 
physical philosopher, and may be considered as the 
founder of the Ionian school. 

There are many difficulties in the way of arriving 
at an accurate perception of the doctrines and theories 
taught by the earliest philosophers. They not only 
lie scattered up and down the works of various writers, 
but when their supposed speculations are collected 
together and arranged, it is impossible to be certain 
that they are genuine. They may be quoted with 
particular objects in order to defend some favourite 
thesis; they may be wilfully misrepresented or acci- 
dentally misunderstood ; and lastly, in the later 
philosophical writers in which they are found most 
plentifully, the sources from which the information 
has been derived are frequently spurious and supposi- 
titious treatises. 

It is on the authority of authors of comparatively 



ORIENTAL DOCTRINES. 233 

modern date, that the Oriental origin of Greek phi- 
losophy has been so much insisted on, whilst in the 
works of the oldest philosophical writers themselves, 
and of ancient historians, there is little or no evidence 
of that intercourse between them and Oriental phi- 
losophers which would be sufficient to account for 
their deriving their theories from such foreign sources. 
The doctrines of India, Persia, and Egypt are doubt- 
less discovered in the philosophy of Greece, but the 
resemblance is rather general than exact, nor is it 
greater than might be expected to arise from the 
human intellect being applied to the investigation of 
the same subjects. 

The antecedent probability of such resemblance 
being discovered is still farther increased by the 
ethnical connection which subsists between the differ- 
ent races of mankind. Knowing, as we do, that in 
the inhabitants of Greece were united two elements, 
from one of which the Persians derived their origin — 
from the other the civilized races of Northern India — 
we are prepared to expect that many of the philo- 
sophical doctrines held in their different countries 
would be found to be identical. It is not necessary 
to suppose intercourse between the founders of Greek 
philosophy and the Brachmans of India, or the Magi 
of Persia, in order to account for similarity of philo- 
sophical ideas developed from similarly constituted 
minds. Had there been any strong resemblance in 
points of detail, we might infer an historical connexion, 
because it is in details, rather than in vague and 



234 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

general principles, that instruction and tradition exer- 
cise their principal influence : but in details and sub- 
ordinate parts, even of a most important kind, the 
similarity vanishes, and in the practical results and 
the applications to human conduct and physical 
phenomena the greatest possible difference is dis- 
cernible. 

A priori, therefore, that degree of resemblance 
which may doubtless be traced between Oriental and 
Greek philosophy, furnishes no grounds for supposing 
that the latter derives its origin from the former. 

Nor is there reason to suppose that Greek phi- 
losophy was partly derived from the East, partly the 
offspring of national intellect. If this were the case, 
there would be want of unity, if not absolute incon- 
sistency : but this is not the case. 

In the speculations of the earliest Greek philoso- 
phers, so far as an opinion can be formed from the 
fragments which remain, and from the dogmas 
quoted and referred to by other subsequent writers, 
there is no trace of that want of connexion which 
would necessarily result from the introduction of a 
foreign element. The sequence of ideas from the 
principles assumed, however false they may themselves 
be, is simple and logical, and such as might naturally 
result from the employment of acute and subtle 
reasoning powers, unaided by any help but the natural 
energy of a philosophical and inquiring spirit. 

There are likewise some deficiencies observable 
in the Greek philosophy, which would not have 



DEFICIENCIES OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 235 

existed had intercourse with the East, and an acquaint- 
ance with Oriental systems exercised an influence on 
its doctrines. Eastern philosophy would have taught 
Greece more perfect notions respecting the personality 
of the Deity; would have accustomed the Greek 
mind to contemplate the divine power as creative, 
and as present and active in its influence over the 
phenomena of nature ; would have defined more 
clearly the dealings of God with man as a moral 
governor of the universe, and probably would have 
suggested the authority of external revelation. These 

CO J 

subjects did not form a part of Greek philosophy. 
Deity was little more than an abstract principle of 
reason. Matter was as eternal as God. Revelation 
was looked upon as a mythical fable. God did not 
interfere in the concerns or interests of man. What- 
ever appearance is to be found of dependence upon 
divine help and support, it proceeds from the natural 
instinct which recognizes the need of supernatural 
assistance, and which yearns for fellowship and com- 
munion with the Supreme Being. Moreover, when 
the historical evidence on which the assumption is 
based is accurately investigated, it appears to be 
wholly inadequate to establish the truth of such a 
theory. It is, in fact, derived from the authority of 
authors who flourished in too late a period to be of 
aDy value — a period subsequent to a time when an 
Oriental influence on philosophy had doubtless begun 
to be established. Accordingly, doctrines which were 
introduced after the decay of Greek philosophy had 



236 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

commenced, were erroneously referred to an age ante- 
cedent to its flourishing era; and principles, which 
were afterwards infused, were mistaken for the 
original sources from which the whole system was 
derived. It is not here contended that there is no 
connexion between Greek and Oriental philosophy, 
but that the latter is not the parent in any sense 
of the former; that they were independent of one 
another ; that the spirit of Greek philosophy is essen- 
tially Greek ; and that Oriental doctrines were a subse- 
quent and late admixture and infusion. The period 
fixed by Ritter, a with great appearance of probability, 
for the first infusion of Oriental doctrines into Greek 
philosophy synchronizes with the decay of the Socratic 
schools. 

In investigating the history of Greek philosophical 
literature, a striking point of resemblance is observ- 
able between it and their poetical literature, a re- 
semblance arising out of the national character 
itself. If history, and not mere mythical tradition, 
is taken as a guide, it is clear that, although 
the Greek boasted of a common national existence, 
and the Hellenic name was a national title used in a 
collective sense, and opposed to that of barbarian ; 
yet that this national whole was made up of several 
separate tribes. These tribes, as they were distinct 
in dialect, so they differed widely in feelings, prin- 
ciples, tastes, interests, and politics ; almost so widely as 
sometimes to preclude the possibility of amalgamation. 
* Hitter, p. 160. 



ANALOGY OF PHILOSOPHY TO POETRY. 237 

They yearned, indeed, for unity. They possessed 
institutions, the object of which was to be a bond of 
union, and to keep up an undying remembrance of 
their common name, and sometimes under extreme 
pressure and danger externally, that unity was attained 
— temporarily, indeed, but still sufficiently for war- 
ranting the assertion that Greece was one nation, 
though divided by opposite principles and conflicting 
interests. 

Similar to their national character was also, as we 
have seen, their national literature. Its several parts 
originated in different localities, they were the pro- 
duce of differently constituted minds, and it was long 
before the several parts united in one whole, har- 
monious, indeed, but still exhibiting the characteristic 
differences of its original elements, and forming that 
peculiarly national species of composition, the Attic 
drama. 

The epic poem resulted from the liveliness, energy, 
and exquisite taste of the Ionian Greek. When 
transplanted into the ruder country of Hesiod it lost 
its heroic character, and became depressed to a human 
level, by depicting the cares, the sorrows, the dif- 
ficulties of human life; but though it lost much of 
its superhuman grandeur, it gained in moral dignity 
and instructive power. Grave sternness characterized 
the lyric muse of the Dorians, effeminate softness, 
and passionate transport inspired the iEolian poets 
of Lesbos ; but all these different elements make up 
a literature, possessing characteristics common to all ; 



238 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

some of its features are peculiar to itself, unlike those 
of any other original national literature, and evidently 
the developments of one nation's mind. 

Similar to this also, was the progressive formation 
of Greek philosophy. It was first cultivated in sepa- 
rate schools, professing different principles, and, to 
a certain extent, pursuing different subjects of inquiry. 
The localities of these schools of philosophy were 
originally as distinct as those of the schools of poetry, 
nor was it until the age of Socrates that one universal 
home of Greek philosophy was established in that cen- 
tre of nationality, of literature, and of science, Athens. 

So long as the schools of Socrates, Plato, and Aris- 
totle were maintained, there may be said to have 
existed, notwithstanding the differences which sub- 
sisted between them, a period of philosophical unity 
in Greece ; but this unity it was as impossible to main- 
tain, as it was to keep up their wished-for unity as 
a nation ; with corruption came division, and philo- 
sophy, though still bearing the name of Greece, was 
no longer the uniform expression of Greek intellect. 

Philosophy, like poetry, followed the subdivisions 
of the Greek nation. The Ionians had their school 
in Asia Minor, which devoted itself principally to 
the investigation of physical phenomena, and only 
incidentally pursued the science of morals. The 
Dorian school, which, from its great founder, was 
termed the Pythagorean, flourished in the colonies of 
southern Italy, and this school, even when it examined 
the phenomena of nature, applied to them the principles 



DORIAN AND IONIAN SCHOOLS. 239 

and reasonings of ethical philosophy. This difference 
is precisely what might be expected from the lively sen- 
sibility of the Ionian mind to the marvels and beauties 
of nature, which is so universally manifested in their 
poetical literature, and from the strict sense of duty 
which led the Dorian to view every subject in an ethi- 
cal aspect, to refer everything to a standard of moral 
fitness. Thus, to them, the identity of moral and 
natural laws was perfectly familiar, and thus, whilst 
the Ionians in their enthusiastic admiration of the 
beauties of nature, forgot the Divine author, the 
Dorian referred all the laws by which these pheno- 
mena were regulated to a manifestation of the attri- 
butes and perfections of the Deity. 

It is clear from what has been stated, that in phi- 
losophy, as well as in literature, the Ionian race main- 
tained its superiority. The method of investigation 
pursued by this school was far more philosophical than 
that of the Dorians ; it was inductive, and endeavoured 
to discover the facts, the on, as it was termed, rather 
than to investigate the hori, i.e., to account for the 
phenomena on certain preconceived notions of moral 
fitness and propriety. Throughout its whole existence 
the school of Ionia enjoyed a reputation worthy of 
a succession of philosophers, which began with Thales, 
and ended with Socrates. 

Besides these two earliest schools, there arose 
another, somewhat later in point of time, but after- 
wards becoming more widely influential than either 
of the other two. The Pythagoreans viewed the phe- 



240 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

nomena of nature under a moral aspect, the Ionians 
under a physical one, but a third school sprang up 
also at Elea, the characteristic of which was logical 
and metaphysical analysis. 

Genealogically, the Eleatic school was Ionian, for 
the place from which it derived its name, the modern 
Velia in Italy, was an Ionian colony, and the founder 
of the sect was Xenophanes, an Ionian, a but, geo- 
graphically, it came within the influence of the Py- 
thagorean schools. 

It was, indeed, related to both, and yet, in the 
method of investigation which it pursued, independent 
of either. There will, in fact, be found to have ex- 
isted a principle of antagonism between the Eleatic 
philosophy and the two other systems. It did not 
pretend to the original investigation of natural phe- 
nomena, but it professed to examine, according to 
the principles of human reason, the logical conclu- 
siveness of the arguments adduced. Refutation of 
error, therefore, was its province, rather than the 
investigation of new truths. 

a 01. lx., b.c. 540. 



THE IONIC SCHOOL, 241 



CHAPTER XV. 

TWO SYSTEMS IN THE IONIAN SCHOOL, THE DYNAMICAL AND MECHA- 
NICAL. — THE PHILOSOPHY OF THALES. ANAXIMANDER. ANAXI- 

MENES. — HERACLITUS. PYTHAGORAS. HIS DOCTRINES OP NUMBER 

AND HARMONY. HIS THEORY OF THE HUMAN SOUL. HIS BELIEF 

IN THE SUPERIORITY OF INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY TO CORPOREAL 

ORGANIZATION. — THE ELEATIC SCHOOL. — ITS ORIGIN. XENOPHANES. 

— HIS HISTORY AND DOCTRINES. 

The Ionian school of philosophy embraced two dis- 
tinct systems, the dynamical and mechanical. The 
former supposes an innate force and energy in nature, 
the spontaneous changes and developments or genera- 
tions of which, without the operation of any external 
influence, constitute the visible phenomena. The 
latter assumes the existence of immutable elements, 
incapable of development or alteration of form, and 
the phenomena are produced by the different combina- 
tions of these elements set in motion, either by an in- 
ternal power or an external influence. The dynamical 
theory was supported by Thales, Anaximenes, Dio- 
genes of Apollonia, and Heraclitus ; the mechanical by 
Anaximander, Anaxagoras, and his disciple Archelaus, 
the teacher of Socrates. Of these Thales, Anaximenes, 
Anaximander, and Heraclitus belong to the period of 
Greek literature which is treated of in this book. 

VOL. I. R 



242 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Thales. 

A biography of Thales has already been inserted 
amongst those of the Seven Sages; it will therefore only 
be necessary here to give some account of his philoso- 
phical system. False as his theories are, they deserve 
the title of philosophical, because they are founded on 
observation and analogy, and so far widely differ from 
the mere assertions of poetry. He may, therefore, be 
considered as the founder of Greek philosophy. He 
observed first the natural process by which the life of 
vegetation is developed, from a germ or seed, a and 
secondly, that moisture generates warmth, and warmth 
is the cause of nutrition and production. Hence his 
two leading doctrines, that the whole world was a 
living being, matured and produced from a seed, in 
which the phenomena were contained, although as yet 
latent and imperfect ; and that the origin of all things 
was the element of moisture, or water. 

Cicero b informs us that he believed in an intelligent 
First Cause, and asserted that out of water the Divine 
mind created all things. That the Deity was without 
beginning and the soul of man immortal, are also men- 
tioned as articles of his creed. Doctrines are also at- 
tributed to him, which argue remarkable progress in 
astronomy and geometry. He is said to have been the 
first to calculate and predict a solar eclipse ; ° to have 
taught that the moon shone by reflected light, and to 

a Arist. Metaph. i. 3. 
f De Nat. Deor. i. 10. c Cic. de Div. i. 49. 



DOCTRINES OF ANAXIMANDER. 243 

have discovered that the angle inscribed in a semi- 
circle is a right angle. 

Anaximander. 

Anaximander, in order to preserve the chronological 
arrangement, must be placed next to Thales, although, 
as has been stated, he was a mechanical philosopher. 
He was a native of Miletus, was born in the third year 
of the forty-third Olympiad, and died shortly after the 
fifty-eighth Olympiad. 4 Tradition informs us that his 
earliest labours were devoted to subjects of practical 
utility. Strabo b ascribes to him the first map; Dio- 
genes c the use, if not the invention, of the sun-dial. 
He taught that the Deity pervaded the universe ; and, 
therefore, that all the heavenly bodies were divine, as 
being the dwelling-places of the divine essence. 

The absence of resemblance between his philosophy 
and that of Thales, renders the statement of Strabo, 
that he was the pupil of the latter, highly improbable ; 
indeed, the succession and mutual relation of the phi- 
losophers in the Ionian school, appears to be arbi- 
trarily assumed. According to Anaximander, then, the 
principle (a^) of all nature was the infinite (to aveigov), 
i.e., a mixture (^typ^of elements from which substances 
were evolved by separation (fouzgnriQ), the homoge- 
neous parts being attracted to each other. d The ex- 
ternal cause which produced this effect mechanically, 
was motion, and this w 7 as eternal; into the infinite 

a B.C. 609. b Strabo, i. 1. c Diog. Laert. ii. 1. 

d Arist. Metaph. xii. 2. 

r2 



244 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

all things were again dissolved. The difference be- 
tween the dynamical and mechanical theory, is at once 
made clear by this example. The elements evidently 
possess no internal power of change, but an external 
force impressed upon them produces new combinations^ 
According to the system of Anaximander, the earth 
was cylindrical, and was situated in the centre of the 
Universe, where it was kept motionless by its equi- 
distance from all the forces and motions which sur- 
rounded it. The heavenly bodies moved round the 
earth, each on a material orbit, or sphere. The cold 
elements, which had been separated by motion from 
the hot, arranged themselves in the centre, the hot 
elements in the circumference of the universe. The 
solar heat, acting upon the moister parts of the earth, 
produced animated beings by a process of fermenta- 
tion, the last created of which was man. 



Anaximenes. 

Anaximenes was also a native of Miletus, who flou- 
rished about the sixtieth Olympiad. There is a general 
resemblance discoverable between his fundamental 
doctrines and those of Thales, taking into consideration 
that the primary element of Thales was water, that of 
Anaximenes, air. From air he supposed that all things 
were produced ; and, like Anaximander, he believed 
that into air all were finally resolved. This was the 
undying principle of vitality which pervaded the world ; 
it was the breath of life which caused man to be a 



PANTHEISM OF IONIC SCHOOL. 245 

living soul. The modifications of this element, by 
which all things were generated, were effected by rare- 
faction and condensation (ysro {jbocvoryjrog fcoct wvzvorrjrog), 
and hence originated the four simple bodies, the four 
elements, as they still continue to be termed popularly, 
earth, air, fire, water. Both Anaximander and Anaxi- 
menes have been accused of atheism, although both 
held the eternity and agency of an intelligent First 
Cause. Their atheism consisted in attributing, like 
the rest of the Ionic school, physical effects to phy- 
sical causes, instead of accounting for their existence 
on the principles of mythology. Their real belief was 
pantheism, the belief in an all-pervading mind, and 
not a personal Deity. As from the epic tradition, that 
ocean flowed around the earth, was developed the 
Thaletic idea that the earth, like a broad island, floated 
on water ; so this philosopher held that the earth, flat 
like a leaf, was supported on the air. From the earth 
were produced all the heavenly bodies, and these, in 
form and substance, resembled their parent. 

Heraclitus. 

Heraclitus was born at Ephesus about the sixty- 
ninth Olympiad. 3 Owing to the early state of the 
Greek language, the infancy of prose composition 
at the period when he wrote, and its consequent in- 
applicability to the expression of philosophical thought, 
he is notorious for the difficulty of his style, and the 

a a.d. 504. 



246 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

figurative form in which he enunciated his doctrines. 
He has therefore been surnamed cxoreivog, or the 
obscure. 

The fragments whicli have been preserved and 
collected by the indefatigable industry of Schleier- 
macher, a bear witness to the justness of this epithet, 
by the obscurity of their diction, and their archaic 
style. Aristotle, in his "Rhetoric," 5 mentions this defect 
in his composition, as an example of style difficult to 
punctuate, Prose was just growing out of poetry, its 
language was rather metaphorical than exact, and the 
ideas of the philosopher had not as yet found any 
corresponding terms; and hence, it is difficult to com- 
prehend what his doctrines are, because of the figu- 
rative language in which they are conveyed. He is 
said by Aristotle c to have taught, that all things were 
in motion except one power, by which all were 
moulded. This power was fate (eifAagphfi), fixed and 
determined by the will of the Divine mind. 

Melancholy in temperament, and aristocratic in his 
prejudices, he separated himself from the stirring 
pursuits of active life, refused the government of his 
native city, d and devoted himself to retirement and 
contemplation, and to mourning over the sin and 
misery of man. Who his instructor was is doubt- 
ful, but disinclined by temper to learn from others, 6 it 
is probable that he drew upon the resources of his 
own mind for his doctrines, and that his theories were 

a Museum der Alterthumswiss. b Rhet. iii. 5. 

c De Coelo, iii. 1. d Diog. Laert. e Eth. vii. 5. 



PHILOSOPHY OF HERACLITUS. 247 

the result of observation rather than erudition. There 
is an important feature which distinguishes the phi- 
losophy of Heraclitus from that of the other philoso- 
phers of the Ionian school, namely, that the agency of 
the Deity as the great First Cause, is more prominently 
brought forward. Although they all believed in the 
Divine intelligence, the laws of nature were to them the 
great object of investigation, but he considered them 
as the instruments of the Divine will, the expositions 
of the Divine wisdom. According to him even the 
reason of man is not part of his nature, but is due to 
the inspiration of a heavenly influence, and this in- 
fluence is the cause of consciousness. 51 This infusion of 
divinity extended to all nature, and hence his cele- 
brated dictum, "Enter, for here too are gods." His 
faith, however, was pantheistic, rather than a belief in 
a personal deity ; but this was the theological creed 
of the whole Ionic school. b 

The original element of Heraclitus was fire, which 
was the vital principle in the universe, and also in 
man. The various transmutations of this element 
were ascribed by him to a self-existing motion. Har- 
mony, he says, is the cause and preserver of all things, 
but it is a harmony of antagonism ; an agreement of 
contraries. This idea probably arose from illustrating 
physical science by moral considerations ; for example, 
sickness makes health pleasant, and labour rest. 

As fire is the element out of which all things 
were produced, so it is that into which all will be 
* Diog. Laert. ix. 10. b Arist. de Part. An. i. 5. 



248 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

resolved, and this composition and resolution will 
recur continually in certain cycles. Heraclitus also 
taught the imperfection of the external senses as the 
means of acquiring knowledge, the germ from which 
were afterwards developed doctrines, exercising an 
important influence upon Greek philosophy. 

Pythagoras. 

So much of fabulous legend is mixed up with the 
history of Pythagoras, 51 that not only is there great 
uncertainty respecting the period at which he flourish- 
ed, but also respecting the principal circumstances of 
his life. b 

The Dorian and Achaean states of that part of Italy, 
which, owing to its being colonized by Greek settlers, 
was named Magna Grsecia, turned their attention to 
subjects of philosophical inquiry, almost contempo- 
raneously with the establishment of the Ionian schools : 
and whilst the opulence of commerce was fitting the 
cities of Ionia to become the nursing-mothers of phi- 
losophy, Grecian enterprize was providing for in- 
tellectual efforts another home in the west, in the 
luxurious and refined settlements of the now wild and 
desolate Calabria. The celebrated legislation of Cha- 
rondas of Catana, as well as that of the Locrian 
Zaleucus, proves that social questions had thus early 
engaged the attention of powerful minds, in that part 

a Herod, iv. 95. 
b Porphyry and lamblichus, Life of Pythagoras. 



PRINCIPLES OF PYTHAGORAS. 249 

of the European continent. At Crotona, a colony of 
the Achseans, a school flourished, devoted to the study 
of medicine, the existence of which probably attracted 
Pythagoras, after he had completed his travels, to 
found his philosophical school in that city, about the 
sixtieth Olympiad, B.C. 540. 

He is said by the best authorities to have been born 
at Samos, in the forty-ninth Olympiad, and to have 
traced his pedigree to the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians. 
Nothing is known of his early history, except that he 
visited the greater part of the civilized world, to 
gratify his love of observation and his taste for phi- 
losophical inquiry ; and tradition points to him as the 
first who called himself a philosopher, tpiXocopog, i.e. 
a lover of wisdom, whilst others assumed to themselves 
the less modest title of aotpoi, or wise men. 

His political principles were evidently aristocratic, 
for he was diametrically opposed to the government 
of rvguvvoi, who were, as has been already stated, the 
temporary patrons and leaders of the growing demo- 
cratic interests. The influence also of himself, and 
his followers, was sufficiently powerful to impose an 
aristocratic constitution on Crotona and the neigh- 
bouring states. The league which he established, 
although it was a religious and philosophical fraternity, 
admission into which was accompanied by mystical 
rites of initiation, constituted also a political bond of 
union, and its object was to propagate aristocratic 
principles. Hence it was a political tumult, origina- 
ting with the popular party, which led to its suppres- 



250 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

sion, and the consequent persecution of the Pythago- 
reans. The revolution which succeeded, and which 
pervaded all the states of Magna Grsecia, whilst it 
made the Pythagorean sect the great object of attack, 
was in fact a struggle between the two great opposing 
political factions, and led to the ascendancy of 
Achaean over Dorian political principles, the utter 
subversion of aristocracy, and the final establishment of 
democratical constitutions. In this revolution, Pytha- 
goras sought safety in flight, but in vain. The prin- 
ciples, and therefore the influence, of his enemies 
extended far and wide, and he was put to death at 
Metapontum, a whilst Crotona, which had rejected his 
wise counsels, sank into decay as rapidly as it had 
risen to prosperity. 

The views which have been generally entertained 
respecting the Pythagorean philosophy, have been 
derived, not from an examination of ancient authorities, 
and those fragments of Pythagorean writers which 
are probably genuine, but from writers who lived 
since the commencement of the Christian era. These 
authors accepted as genuine a vast number of works 
which bore the title of Pythagorean, but which are 
unquestionably spurious, and also made no difference 
between the Pythagoreanism of ancient and of modern 
times. The inconsistencies, therefore, of those who 
misunderstood the precepts of their master, were in- 
corporated in a system with which it was impossible 
that they could be reconciled. 

a Cic. de Fin. v. 2. 



DOCTRINE OF NUMBER. 251 

It is difficult to form a clear conception of the rela- 
tion which number bore to the Pythagorean philoso- 
phy, even generally; in particular cases it is impossible. 
Probably in some of its applications, no clear ideas 
existed in the minds of these philosophers themselves. 
At one time, the term number is used as though it 
merely signified the arithmetical proportion in which 
elements are combined, so as to produce different phe- 
nomena. Again, in discussing the theory of musical 
harmony, and that theory of harmony or music of the 
spheres which he applied to his astronomical system, 
number simply expresses the ratio which strings, pro- 
ducing musical tones, bear to one another, and of that 
relation of the several parts of the universe, which 
constitutes order, regularity, and stability. In these 
cases, number is only used as representing, symboli- 
cally, the mutual relation of things which have an 
existence independent of it. 

At another time, when the monad or unity is 
spoken of as the principle of all being, it appears as 
though the perception which he formed of it, was 
that of something real and material. 

Upon the whole, however, it appears probable that 
the symbolical sense of the term, was the one adopted 
by Pythagoras himself, and that, by a forced analogy, 
number was afterwards made use of by his followers 
to account for phenomena to which it was totally in- 
capable of being applied. They committed the com- 
mon error of confounding the symbol with the thing 
signified. Instead of being content with affirming 



252 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

that harmony depended on the proportion of the parts 
to one another, and that therefore this proportion was 
the law, according to which the operations of nature 
were carried on, the followers of Pythagoras car- 
ried his theory further, and considered that which was 
in reality only its symbolical representative, the ma- 
terial and efficient cause of all things. Harmony 
seems to have been the foundation of the Pythagorean 
system ; the leading idea which had first got possession 
of his mind. Music had now begun to exercise an 
influence over poetry, it was but a step to introduce it 
into the domain of philosophy. Its application to 
account for the order and regularity which reigned 
among the heavenly bodies, naturally suggested itself 
to an astronomer, whose studies had been directed 
to it in the abstract, and who, even in his medical 
studies, was led to make observations on its influ- 
ence upon the human frame. 

Nor is number an unnatural symbol of the rules 
which govern the various relations and offices of moral 
conduct. There seems to have been a tendency in 
the human mind, to connect mysterious ideas with 
abstract numbers* No one can satisfactorily explain 
the almost reverential feeling with which the num- 
bers three and seven have been universally regarded, 
and yet the fact is nevertheless undoubted. The 
application of number as the measure of all quantity, 
the relation which the principles of geometry were 
soon found to bear, not only to extension and space, 
but to all science; the capability which it has of 



DOCTRINE OF NUMBER. 253 

symbolically representing even the abstract operations 
of the human mind itself, will go far to illustrate 
this tendency, but not to explain it. 

The Pythagorean axiom, in which is embodied the 
two significations of the term number, before alluded 
to, is as follows : — Number is the essence (ovalcx) and 
principle (%%^) of all things. Now, what is contended 
for is, that so far as essence was considered as only 
identical in meaning with principle or first cause 
(<%#?)> tne doctrine which the Pythagorean philo- 
sophy intended to convey is clear and intelligible, 
but when it is used a to signify the substance of things 
(vX?)), language, which was intended to be symbolical, 
is applied by a false analogy to subjects to which 
it is inapplicable. 

A passage in the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle 5 seems 
to imply that the studies of the Pythagoreans being 
mathematical, they assumed that the principles of 
mathematics were those of all other things. Now, 
number is the first of these, and in natural phe- 
nomena many numerical analogies are observable. 
Again the properties of harmony are represented by 
number. The false conclusion drawn from these 
premises was not that the laws of the natural uni- 
verse were harmony, and represented by number, 
but, that the universe itself was number and har- 
mony; probably, all that Pythagoras contended for 
was, that in all works, human and divine, harmony 
and proportion, and therefore number is discernible 
a Arist. Metaph. i. 5. b Ibid. 



254 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

as the regulating principle. Had the Pythagoreans 
been acquainted with the modern theory of chemical 
equivalents, they would have seen in it the most 
perfect illustration of their system. 

This theory of number, as the first principle in nature, 
is rendered obscure by those who, like Bitter, consider 
the co-ordinate series alluded to by Aristotle, a as a 
table of primal elements, whereas the object of this 
catalogue was totally different ; the parallel columns 
representing a series of goods, with their corre- 
sponding contraries, and among these is reckoned 
the unit, the primal element, the representative or 
symbol of perfection. 

From these considerations it is clear that the 
Pythagorean theory of number was reasonable, so far 
as it resolved all the relations, whether of space or 
time, into those of number or proportion, and asserted 
that the order of the universe was maintained by the 
laws of harmony ; but that it became arbitrary, mere 
words without meaning, when it assumed that mathe- 
matical quantities and ideas were not symbols of things, 
but the things themselves, the elements out of which 
material essences originated, and that even virtue, 
justice, and all other moral qualities were defined 
by certain fixed and determined numbers. 

The same mysticism and obscurity, which pervade 
the doctrines already spoken of, enter also into the 
investigations of the Pythagoreans respecting the spiri- 
tual nature of man. The human soul, they believed 

a Eth. i. 4. 



DOCTRINE OF THE HUMAN SOUL. 255 

to be an emanation from the Deity, eternal, personal, 
dwelling in other bodies successively, and punished 
or rewarded in its future state of being, able to 
energize only by means of its union with the body, 
the senses of which are its instruments and organs. 
They divided it into two parts, the rational and 
irrational : the governing part, the peculiar property of 
man ; the other the seat of the passions and instincts, 
common to man, together with the lower animals. 

After all, the most important feature of the Pytha- 
gorean philosophy was, that it had for its principal 
objects the enunciation of one great truth, the supe- 
riority of intellectual activity to corporeal organiza- 
tion. Arbitrary as its theory of numbers may have 
been, nevertheless in teaching that all knowledge 
was resolvable into that of mathematical relations, it 
referred its origin not to the operations of the bodily 
senses, but of pure intellect. Even in musical har- 
mony the effects and phenomena alone are appre- 
hended and appreciated by the ear, the theory and 
the principles of harmony must be investigated by 
the logical powers. Thus the intellect was made the 
judge of truth of every kind, without any necessary 
dependence upon the deceptive tendencies of the ex- 
ternal senses. It was, doubtless, a yearning after this 
result, so seductive to contemplative minds, which led 
Pythagoras and his followers into the unsound appli- 
cations and illogical developments of a theory which, 
in its simplicity, appeared to rest upon no unreason- 
able foundation. 



256 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

THE ELEATIC SCHOOL. 

In this school philosophical investigation was pur- 
sued on more strictly logical principles than have been 
hitherto observable. The founders of it recognized, 
in existent systems, a mixture of what they considered 
truth and error; they perceived that all contained 
many arbitrary assumptions and inconsequential rea- 
sonings, and, as a first step, they applied themselves 
not to fresh investigation, but to examining the theo- 
ries already existing. They brought the truth or 
falsehood of each theory to the test of a strict logical 
analysis. It is evident that the introduction of this 
principle into philosophical studies forms an era in- 
finitely more important than one merely distinguished 
for an advance in original inquiry. 

The following is a brief history of the rise of the 
Eleatic school. The original founders of the Greek 
colonies carried with them not only commercial en- 
terprise and spirit, but also that desire of intellectual 
advancement, which so strongly marks the national 
character. Hence, the little colony of Elea, in Magna 
Graecia, soon grew into eminence for its patronage of 
science and learning. About the sixtieth Olympiad, 
although the date is somewhat uncertain, there flou- 
rished in the Ionian city of Colophon, which had been 
previously celebrated as the native town of Mimner- 
mus, a an elegiac poet named Xenophanes. Political 
troubles, probably the attack by the monarch of 
a Hor. Epist. it, ii. 100. 



XENOPHANES OF ELEA. 257 

Persia upon the liberties of Ionia, drove him from 
his native land. He travelled through Sicily and 
Southern Italy, supporting himself as a wandering 
minstrel, by the recitation of his poems, and finally 
settled at Elea. 

Notwithstanding the assertion of Plato, a that the 
Eleatic doctrines existed previous to the time of 
Xenophanes, no doubt exists that the wandering and 
exiled rhapsodist turned his thoughts to philosophy, 
and became the founder of the celebrated philosophi- 
cal school in his adopted city. Various opinions have 
been held on the question, as to who was his philoso- 
phical instructor, but as the characteristic of his di- 
dactic poetry is a determined opposition to the vicious 
polytheism of the epic poets, there is nothing in his 
system which might not have been the work of an 
original thinker, placing himself in direct antagonism 
to immoral doctrines. 5 Out of the negation of the 
prevailing superstitions, his positive doctrines respect- 
ing the Deity naturally arose. He denied a plurality 
of gods. He ridiculed the attributing human forms 
to the deities. He directed the bitterest attacks 
against the impiety of representing the gods as guilty 
of disgraceful crimes, such as are found constantly in 
the poems of Homer and Hesiod. 

His positive doctrines were that God is omnipotent 
and all- wise, without beginning or end ; that a plu- 
rality of gods is inconsistent with and contradictory 
to the attributes of Deity, for two all-powerful 

a Soph. p. 242. b Ritter ; Diog. Laert. and Sext. Empir. 

VOL. I. S 



258 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

beings could not exist together. It has been doubted 
whether the monotheism of Xenophanes was not in 
reality pantheism. He asserts that God was the same 
as the universe, but he also asserts the existence of 
a material world. Whether, therefore, his idea of 
God was a spiritual essence pervading the material 
universe it is impossible to determine, but pure pan- 
theism is totally inconsistent with the belief which 
he undoubtedly entertained, that God had a personal 
existence, and that he was the all- wise governor of 
the universe. According to the natural system of 
Xenophanes, the four elements were the original 
principles of all things. In the midst of all his 
hypotheses, this philosopher appears to have been 
deeply impressed with the imperfection of all human 
knowledge. He saw that the nature of the Deity 
and all existing things, was beyond the sphere as 
well of the intellectual powers as the corporeal senses 
of man. 

Although the positions laid down by the Eleatic 
school were rather negative than positive, they, never- 
theless, marked a great and important advance in 
philosophical speculation ; first, in asserting the unity 
of the Deity; and secondly, in referring the conclusions 
of other systems to the test of reason. 



BOOK II. 

SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

AGE OF PISISTRATUS. ESTABLISHMENT OF TYRANNIES IN GREECE. — 

PATRONAGE OF LITERATURE BY PISISTRATUS. — THE DRAMA. — DRAMA- 
TIC TASTE OF THE IONIAN RACE. NATURE OF DRAMATIC POETRY. 

RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE ATTIC DRAMA. RELIGIOUS DRAMA OF 

THE ROMISH CHURCH. THE RELIGION OF GREECE NOT UNFAVOUR- 
ABLE TO THE DRAMA, OR TO ITS FORMING A PART OF AN ACT OF 

WORSHIP. THE LUDICROUS ELEMENT NATURAL TO THE DIONYSIAC 

WORSHIP. SOME NATIONS DESTITUTE OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 

THE TWO ELEMENTS OF THE DRAMA, THE CHORUS AND THE DIALOGUE. 

THE CHORUS IS (1) THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ELEMENT, AND 

(2) THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SPECTATORS. THE ESSENCE OF 

THE DRAMA IS THE DIALOGUE. LYRICAL COMEDY AND TRAGEDY. 

The period at which Greece began to have a fixed 
and established national literature was that of Pisis- 
tratus, commonly called the tyrant (rvguvvog) of Athens. 

Almost every Greek state, except Argos and Sparta, 
was, at some period of its existence, under the govern- 
ment of a rvguvvog. The period of his sway was the 
transition state through which each little republic 
passed in its progress towards liberty. 

The tyrants were in fact the regenerators of Greece. 

s 2 



260 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Absolute monarchy had given way to an aristocracy 
of birth, this had degenerated into an oppressive 
oligarchy ; the people increasing in commercial wealth 
and that intelligence which accompanies it, had gained 
sufficient strength to throw off the yoke, but not 
enough to govern and act for themselves. The do- 
minion of a rvguvvog was therefore necessarily prepa- 
ratory to the establishment of free constitutions. The 
era of these provisional governments was an era of pro- 
gress, their policy was, owing to the circumstances 
which raised them to power, favourable to the im- 
provement and cultivation of the national character. 

When, therefore, we read that Sparta and Argos 
were the uncompromising enemies of tyranny, we 
must remember that this implies that they were the 
bitterest opponents of liberty. They were Dorians, 
and therefore, by the prejudices of race and blood, 
aristocratic ; to oppose tyrants would, therefore, be to 
oppose the overthrow of their own political system. 

The Ionian race, on the other hand, was by nature 
enterprising, restless, fond of foreign travel, and of 
intercourse with other nations, commercial, and zea- 
lously attached to free institutions. Amongst the 
Ionian states, therefore, the tyrants flourished. Whe- 
ther the tyrannies were succeeded by a free con- 
stitutional government, or by the evils of unbridled 
democracy, depended on the following alternative, 
whether or not at the time when the tyrant was over- 
thrown the people were sufficiently advanced and 
educated to govern themselves. 



INFLUENCE OF PISISTRATUS. 261 

In Athens, the capital of the most advanced section 
of the Ionian race, in the days of the great legislator 
and great patron of freedom, Solon, a relation of 
Solon was the leader of the anti-aristocratic party . a 
This was Pisistratus. He was himself, as is so often the 
case with popular leaders, a member of an illustrious 
family; he was a descendant of the house of Codrus, 
the ancient royal family of Athens. His munificent dis- 
position, his personal beauty and bravery, his shining 
abilities and powerful eloquence, all contributed to 
increase and establish his influence, 5 and he used his 
influence to improve and cultivate the taste and 
intellect of his countrymen. He restored the great 
Panathenaic festival, in all its splendour: under his 
patronage the literary contests of the rhapsodists 
flourished, the immortal poems of Homer were col- 
lected and arranged, and thus became fixed and re- 
cognized standards of Attic taste, as they had been 
previously national favourites. 

But his enlightened and cultivated mind, not only 
encouraged a love for the ancient literature of Ionian 
Greece, but fostered and matured that branch of 
it which afterwards possessed the greatest influence 
over Greece, both morally and politically, that a 
national literature has ever before or since exercised. 

In his ten years of power, the drama made its 
first appearance at Athens, rude, indeed, and in its 
infancy, but still giving promise of its future great- 

a Herod, i. 59, k. r. X. b Plutarch, vit. Sol. ; Cic. de Orat. iii. 
c b.c. 535, Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. 



262 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ness, growing, like all other poetry, out of religious 
feeling, and now consecrated by this wise ruler to 
the service of religion. 

From what has been already said of the Ionian 
character, it is evident, that it was of that peculiar 
kind, which, a priori, we should expect would be 
devotedly and passionately attached to dramatic per- 
formances. The whole essence of the drama is, as 
A. V. Schlegel a has observed, activity and energy; 
it is not enough to describe it as a poem, in which 
the characters speak and not the poet, for this is the 
case in mere dialogue, and dialogue is not dramatic 
unless there is some end or object to look forward 
to with interest, some effect to be produced, some 
catastrophe to be brought about. In epic poetry, 
we never forget that the characters belong to another 
age, one, perhaps, long gone by; we feel an interest 
in what they do, and what they suffer, but only such 
an interest as we should take in historical characters. 
The train of incidents follow one another, in calm, 
quiet, and regular order ; the action stops at intervals, 
in order that the scene and the locality may be de- 
scribed; the attention is divided, so to speak, between 
animate and inanimate nature. But in dramatic 
poetry, the spectator throws himself into the midst 
of the events which are represented before his eyes; 
he makes one of the characters; he seems to have 
a share of their fortunes, just as he would in real 
life; he cannot believe that it is not a reality; the 

a Lect. I. 



THE DRAMA SUITED TO IONIANS. 263 

scene, the dresses, the human voices, the gestures, 
all combine to realize it to him, hence he actively 
sympathizes, instead of being merely passively moved. 

The great secret of all poetry is what the ancients 
called irgo b^wrav vote};,* that is, picturesqueness, the 
realization of the thing described; now dramatic 
poetry possesses all the requisites which can be ima- 
gined for attaining this end. The dramatist has at his 
immediate disposal resources which the writer of epic 
poetry would seek for in vain. We can, therefore, 
easily understand the absorbing interest with which 
the lively, energetic Ionian would witness a dramatic 
exhibition ; we can picture to ourselves the enormous 
theatre crowded with all classes, sitting with breathless 
attention to hear even a whole tetralogy, although 
many hours must have passed during the representation. 

There are two characteristic features of the Attic 
drama which cannot be too constantly kept in mind 
when investigating its nature and history. The first 
is, its religious character ; the second, the actual par- 
ticipation of the audience in the action of the play. 
The old cyclic chorus was part of a religious cere- 
mony, and derived its name (zuzXiog) from its circling 
dance around the altar of Dionysus. And so the 
drama, the oldest element of which was the choral, 
was an act of worship addressed to the same deity. 
The theatre was a temple consecrated to him. The 
^vybilyi, on which the chief member of the chorus stood, 
when he took a part in the dialogue with the actors 
a Arist. Rhet. 



264 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

on the stage, was an altar. And hence, it must have 
been with a seriousness approaching to religious 
awe, that an Athenian audience beheld illustrated, 
in the fortunes of the great houses of mythical 
antiquity, the struggle of man's free-will with the 
omnipotent power of Destiny, a power to which gods 
as well as men were supposed subject, and which even 
the divine will (Numen, Ai'ca) was impotent to resist. 

This contemplation of the struggle with the irresis- 
tible decrees of Fate, which the best and most virtuous 
had constantly to maintain, and which is the essence 
of Greek tragic story, naturally led to melancholy 
views of human life, and passages abound in the 
Greek tragedians in accordance with the solemn la- 
mentation of Job, that " Man is born to misery as the 
sparks fly upwards ; " and with the words of the in- 
spired Preacher, 3 " Wherefore I praised the dead 
which are already dead, more than the living which 
are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which 
hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work 
that is done under the sun." The tragic poet would 
have sympathized with the sentiments of Isaiah, "The 
righteous is taken away from the evil to come." b 

In the " (Edipus Coloneus " c the woes of (Edipus 

suggest an entire chorus on the vanity of life : — 

One only healing hour remains, 
When Death, man's comforter and friend, 
Appears his weary course to end ; 
Of all the dreams of bliss there are, 
Not to be born is best by far ; 

a Eccles. iv. 2, 3. b Isai. lvii. 1. c Verse 1218. 



RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF THE DRAMA. 265 

Next best, by far the best for man, 

To speed as fast as speed he can. Anstice. 

So Euripides exclaims, 3 that 

" All mortal things are but a shadow," 

and that 

" 'Tis not in mortal nature to be happy f 

and even the comic poet b tells the same tale, and 

has brought together many of the expressions which 

either Homer or the tragedians have used to describe 

man's misery. 

" Mortals living in darkness ; like to the genera- 
tions of leaves ; feeble ; moulded of clay ; creatures 
fleeino*, as it were a shadow, never continuing in one 
stay ; unfledged ; ephemeral ; wretched ; like a dream 
that is gone." 

The believers in a pure faith can scarcely under- 
stand a religious element in dramatic exhibitions. 
They who know that God is a spirit, and that they 
who worship him must worship him in spirit and in 
truth, feel that his attributes are too awful to permit 
any ideas connected with Deity to be brought into 
contact with the exhibition of human passions. Re- 
ligious poetry of any kind, except that which is in- 
spired, has seldom been the work of minds sufficiently 
heavenly and spiritual to be perfectly successful in 
attaining the erjd of poetry, namely the elevation of 
the thoughts to a level with the subject. It brings 
God down to man instead of raising man to him. It 
causes that which is most offensive to religious feeling 
and even good taste, irreverent familiarity with sub- 
3 Eurip. Med. 1193. b Aristoph. Aves, 685. 



266 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

jects which cannot be contemplated without awe. 
But a religious drama would be, to those who realize 
to their own minds the spirituality of God, nothing 
less than anthropomorphism and idolatry. 

Christians of a less advanced age, and believers 
in a more sensuous creed, were able to view with 
pleasure the mystery-plays in which the gravest truths 
of the Gospel were dramatically represented, nay, more, 
just as the ancient Athenians could look even upon 
their gross and licentious comedy, as forming part of 
a religious ceremony, so could Christians imagine a 
religious element in profane dramas, which represented, 
in a ludicrous light, subjects of the most holy character. 
So closely was the drama connected with religion, a 
that it has been said, that even the plays of our own 
Shakspeare were reproductions of the prose romances 
of the day without the monkish religious element. 

But the imaginative Greek did not experience 
this difficulty. His gods were either the creatures 
of his own fancy, or they were human beings like 
himself, who had, while alive, attained the heroic 
standard, and after death had been deified. They pos- 
sessed the same properties, feelings, passions and moral 
imperfections as himself; even the Supreme ruler 
of them all was not omnipotent. His own native 
land was theirs, they were like his fellow-country-men. 
He could bathe in the river, or drink of the fountain, 
or seek shade in the grove, or climb the hill which 
were pervaded by the influence, and consecrated by 
a Don. Greek Theatre. 



CONNEXION OF THE DRAMA WITH RELIGION. 267 

the presence, of deity. Parnassus, where the Muses, 
the authors of all inspiration, resided, was close at 
hand. The mighty Olympus, the dwelling place of 
Zeus himself, he might behold with his own eyes. 

That dramatic representations should enter into 
the ceremonial of public worship, is quite consistent 
with the nature of the Greek religious belief. If it 
consisted in a deification of the powers of nature, it 
follows that the works of nature, the visible manifesta- 
tions of these powers, were symbols and representa- 
tions of their deities. The Greeks, therefore, became 
at once accustomed to connect the mimetic art with 
worship, and to accompany the choral ode with 
imitative dances, performed by characters represent- 
ing the gods in whose honour they were performed, 
together with their train of attendant deities. Al- 
though we might expect that these would be of a 
solemn nature, as, in fact, they were in the earliest 
species of choral poetry, namely the dithyrambic, which 
symbolized the story of the birth of Dionysus, we 
can easily conceive the rapid introduction of the 
ludicrous element also. Dionysus was the god and 
giver of wine, which gladdens and cheers man's heart. 
How natural then it was, that the early symbolizing 
and expressing the sentiments connected with his 
worship, should be by means of comedy, even before 
his dramatic worship took the form of tragedy, and 
that the origin of the former should be even prior, 
in point of time, to that of the latter. 

We must now proceed to distinguish the original 



268 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

elements out of which the Attic drama sprung. They 
are two, the chorus and the dialogue. The language 
itself, in which each of these are written, show that 
the former is the Doric, the latter the Ionic element. 
Not that the choruses in an Attic tragedy are written 
strictly in the Doric dialect, but that important 
peculiarity of it, which so singularly adapts it for 
musical accompaniment, namely, the broad or open 
pronunciation of the "a" sound being invariably 
retained, sufficiently demonstrates its Doric origin. 

When we consider how absorbing is the interest 
connected with theatrical amusements, it seems sur- 
prizing that there should have been nations totally 
ignorant of them. The Semitic races had no drama. 
The Chevalier Bunsen a says, "The drama, or the com- 
bination of the lyric and epic elements, and the 
complete representation of the eternal laws of human 
destiny in political society, is entirely unknown to 
the Semite. It is exclusively the creation of the 
Hellenic mind, feebly imitated by the Romans, repro- 
duced with originality by the Germanic race. But 
Iranian India is not entirely wanting in this last 
of the three species of poetical composition." 

Hebrew poetry, although it exhibits every variety 
of composition, is destitute of the dramatic element. 
The sublime and Homeric Isaiah celebrates in a 
triumphant epinician the glories of Israel. b The 
mournful and affectionate threni of Jeremiah reminds 
us of the elegies of Simonides; one seventh of the 
a Brit. Assoc. Report, 1847. b Isai. xiv. 



HEBREW POETRY NOT DRAMATIC. 269 

Psalms are elegies; a the book of Job abounds in them; 
the songs of Miriam and Deborah, the prophecy of 
Balaam, the numerous Psalms which sing the praises 
of the Most High, are grander odes and hymns than 
can be found throughout the whole range of classic 
poetry. The Proverbs of Solomon contain a collec- 
tion of didactic poetry, in comparison with which the 
wisest gnomes of the Greeks sink into insignificance : 
Ezekiel is, in his ideas and language, as tragic as 
iEschylus, but he did not write tragedies. Even 
those portions of Holy Scripture which most resemble 
dramatic compositions, are not dramas. The sixty- 
third chapter of Isaiah is simply a dialogue maintained 
between a chorus and the Messiah. The song of 
Solomon has no fable, no action. The story of Job 
has no change of fortune. All these, therefore, 
whilst they possess some of the qualities, are destitute 
of the essentials of dramatic compositions. 

Egypt, Arabia, Persia, however rich their national 
literature may have been, did not, as far as we have 
any evidence, possess any. Dramatic performances 
have existed in India from very early times, and hence, 
perhaps, the Greeks, as an Indo-Germanic race, were 
likewise distinguished by a taste for this kind of liter- 
ature. But it was only in one division of the Greek 
nation that dramatic literature arrived at perfection. 
The drama was of Attic growth, and all the great dra- 
matic writers were Attic, and the beautiful language 
in which they wrote was Attic likewise. 
a Lowth, De Sac. Po. 



270 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

It has already been shown, when treating of lyric 
poetry, that choral poetry is essentially Doric ; that 
although the poets were not native Dorians, yet 
they adopted that dialect, and addressed themselves 
to the feelings and sympathies of that race. 

It was the choral element which gave the reli- 
gious tone to the drama ; which kept up the con- 
nexion between it and public worship. If pious and 
moral sentiments were to be enforced, and reflections 
made upon the action of the play, it was the duty 
of the chorus to sustain the part of the religious 
and moral instructor. Who can read the choruses 
of the three great tragedians, without being forcibly 
impressed with the high moral tone, the deep reli- 
gious fervour, the true wisdom, the virtuous indigna- 
tion, the sympathy with all that is pure, and wise, 
and holy, which breathes in them ? We can never 
forget that they are Dorian in sentiment, as well as in 
the outward form of rhythm and language. 

Besides the religious and moral importance of the 
chorus, there is another object which must be kept in 
mind. That is, the realization of the audience. 
The chorus represented the spectators, the connexion 
which subsisted between it and the actors in the 
dialogue, symbolized, as it, were, the sympathy which 
is taken for granted, between the feelings of the spec- 
tators and the fortunes of those upon the stage. 

The §v(jb'zk?i, or altar, on which the chief choreutes 
stood, when, in the name of the rest, he took part in the 
dialogue, was the central part of the circle in which 



CHORAL ELEMENT OF THE DRAMA. 271 

the audience sat; in him, therefore, they might be 

supposed to be concentrated, and therefore personified. 

The choral element, then, of the Grecian drama, 

iumhmd u - essential points, the religious ?hc 

f the performance, the realization of the 

audience. 1. The character of the drama was religions, 

because the chorus was originally a solemn dance. 
and sacred hvmn. and it preserved that chare :te: 

:: the sentiments to which it rave utterance. 
being always full of sympathy with virtue end : 
ness. of indignation against vice and injustice, teaching 
subm:^::u :■■'. iht mmite will, and fortitude under the 
terrible flat of a destiny, "h hi :: mourn in in 
to resist, and therefore unmanly to bewail. 

2. The chorus represented the spectator: it was 
therefore the link by which he was connected with 
as it were, made one of the character- on the stare. 
He was thus supposed to entei mi: their feeliueis 
ami mmnm. end the sentiments of the chorus are 
the echoes of his own. tiie expression of his own 
sympathies. 

' It thus mltihed that impmtent office, which Horace 
attrihutes to it. of being a public instructor. 2 It 
him the sympathies of the andience in a right 
direction, and caused them to he given to right objects. 
But. although tlm uncus was an important ele- 
ment in the Greek tragic drama, and to the sacred 
choral sonus and dances :h: tuna owed its origin, still 
it is the dialogue, and not the chorus, which constitutes 
- Hor. Art. F:- 



272 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the essence of the drama. The chorus was doubtless 
mimetic, for the gymnopaedic, hyporchematic, and pyr- 
rhic dances, which are said to have corresponded to 
the tragic, comic, and satyric choruses respectively, 
were all mimetic, but it could not be dramatic. 

Previous to the date which is generally assigned to 
the first invention of tragedy, there is said to have 
existed performances both tragic and comic, but of a 
non-dramatic kind. These have been termed, by 
modern scholars, the lyrical comedy and tragedy, 
because the choruses and recitations were accompanied 
by the lyre, instead of the flute, which was the case 
in the dithyrambi. In these, tlie only actors were the 
members of the chorus, and hence Diogenes Laertius a 
asserts, that the chorus alone enacted the whole, he- 
IgapdriZs. If we apply the term dramatic, simply 
to mimetic action, this word is correctly used ; if to 
that which is commonly understood by it, this species 
of performance was not dramatic. 

The Orchomenian inscriptions, the oldest of which is 
supposed by Bockh to be earlier than B.C. 220, mentions 
both tragic and comic performances, long before the 
time of Thespis. When, therefore, the invention of 
comedy is claimed for the Sicilian Epicharmus, 
lyric comedy is implied; and in like manner, tragedy, 
which is said to have existed before the time of 
Thespis, was not dramatic, but lyric tragedy. 
a Diog. Laert. iii. 56. 



ORIGIN OF THE DIALOGUE. 273 



CHAPTER II. 

ORIGIN OF THE DIALOGUE. — ACCOUNT GIVEN BY ARISTOTLE. ORIGIN 

OF THE TERMS Tpayu)Sia AND K(t)fJiO)oia. TWOFOLD NATURE OF THE 

DIONYSIAC WORSHIP. ITS HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION INTO 

GREECE. AMALGAMATION OF IT WITH THE ELEUSINIAN WORSHIP OF 

IACCHUS. THE PROGRESSIVE ADVANCE OF THE TRAGIC DRAMA 

TRACED. — INTRODUCTION OF SATYRS. ARION. — THESPIS. PHRYNI- 

CHUS. — CH03RILUS. PRATINAS. ATHENIAN POLITICAL AND DRA- 
MATIC GREATNESS CONTEMPORANEOUS. 

The subject now to be examined is, how the dia- 
logue came to be connected with the original chorus. 
Aristotle informs us that tragedy (that is, the new 
element which distinguished the rgdytzog rgoirog from 
the old chorus) was at first extemporaneous narrative 
delivered by the sgag%om£. These were the chief per- 
formers in the dance and the directors of the rest of 
the dancers, a and were the principal executors of the 
mimetic action ; they performed, in fact, the united 
functions of a ballet-master and coryphaeus, and as 
these extemporaneous effusions gave birth to tragedy, 
so in the licentious and unrestrained phallic dance 
they were the original germ of comedy. 

That these narratives at first were confined to le- 

a II. xviii. 605. 
VOL. I. T 



274 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

gends connected with the birth and subsequent adven- 
tures of Dionysus there can be no doubt, and probably 
the reciter, habited in goat-skins, represented one of 
his attendant deities, the satyrs. Hence the name 
given to this entertainment rgocyah'cc, or the goat-ode ; 
and, on a similar principle, comedy was designated as 
xoffAofiioc, the ode of the revellers. And hence, when 
in later times the adventures of other gods or heroes 
were introduced into these narratives or episodes, 
the people, disappointed of their favourite and fami- 
liar legend, or struck with the inconsistency of any 
other plots unconnected with the subject of the fes- 
tival which they were celebrating, would express their 
disapprobation, and exclaim, ovhh Kgog Awvcov, "this 
has nothing to do with Dionysus." 

The introduction of subjects not connected with 
the history of Dionysus is attributed to Thespis, who 
is therefore considered the inventor of tragedy, and 
the proverb above-mentioned is said to have been first 
used with reference to his dramas when exhibited at 
Athens. Plutarch, a however, assigns the origin and 
first use of this proverb to the time of Phrynichus 
and iEschylus. 

The feelings which accompanied the worship of Dio- 
nysus were of a mixed nature. The death and birth 
of the god symbolized the decay of Nature, and its 
revival in the spring ; the latter the cause of joy and 
gladness, the former of grief and sorrow; hence, the 
subjects of tragedy might be at one time mournful 
a Plutarch. Symp. i. 5. 



WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS. 275 

and another cheerful, and, consequently, it was not 
until tragedy was severed from this limited range of 
subjects and adopted other adventures, that it limited 
itself in its choice to pathetic histories, which are now 
considered essential to the idea of tragedy. 

To trace through its numerous forms the worship of 
Dionysus is a work of no common difficulty. The title 
"god of many names," given him by Sophocles, im- 
plies, of course, numerous attributes, and, therefore, 
numerous phases in which he has been presented 
to the imagination. 

The voice of tradition points to India as the birth- 
place of the god, and antiquity a asserts his identity 
with the Egyptian Osiris, whilst it makes Orus, the 
son of Osiris, the same as the Greek Apollo. The 
similarity existing between some rites observed in the 
worship of the Indian Bacchus and those of Dionysus, 
render it probable that they were originally one and 
the same deity. Herodotus asserts that this worship 
came to Greece from Egypt and Phoenicia. 

Now, from the ports of Phoenicia all the commerce 
of the East flowed to Greece, and, therefore, whatever 
customs, civil or religious, were introduced from that 
coast of the Mediterranean, would be said to come 
from that country. The testimony of Holy Scripture 
informs us not only that the merchants of Phoenicia 
were the richest and most celebrated in the world, but 
that the neighbouring land of Canaan was one of re- 
markable fertility. It is described as a land flowing 

a Herod, ii. 42, 144. 

t 2 



276 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

with milk and honey, the glory of all lands. It is 
said to have abounded in fine vineyards, and to have 
produced the finest grapes. a The spies who went first 
to inspect the promised land, "cut down a branch 
with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between 
two on a staff." Strabo and Pliny both speak of 
bunches growing in Palestine of an extraordinary 
size. The numerous passages in which the labours of 
the vintage and the fruit of the vine furnish meta- 
phorical expressions to the sacred writers, proves to 
what an extent the cultivation of the vine prevailed. 
It is highly probable, therefore, that the idolatrous 
Canaanites held vintage festivals in honour of a god 
of wine, and that from them the Dionysiac worship 
travelled into Greece. 

Mr. Mitchell remarks, b that some allusion to a 
Dionysiac worship is found in the devil-worship of 
the Gentiles. In two places, the original word trans- 
lated "Devils," is Dn^W to which word Gesenius 
affixes the following signification, " Hairy, rough, a 
buck, a he-goat ; plural, inhabitants of solitary places, 
perhaps wild men in the form of he-goats, similar to 
the Greek satyrs." 

The prevalence, moreover, of the Dionysiac worship 
in Crete is easy of explanation, on the supposition 1 ^ 
its existence among the Canaanitish tribes. It has 
been disputed, whether Crete was colonized from 
Canaan, or the reverse; but a connexion between 
Crete and Canaan is generally allowed. This island, 
a Numb. xiii. 22. b In trod, to Frogs, p. 51. 



WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS. 277 

from its situation, seems to have been in very early 
times, a mark for colonization, and from the variety of 
nations which inhabited it, and the different religious 
faiths professed by them, the Dionysiac worship in 
Crete became mixed up with other traditions/ 1 If a 
Canaanitish colony settled in Crete, their new abode 
would well compensate for that which they had left ; 
its fair climate, its general fertility, and above all, its 
fitness for cultivating the vine, would point it out as a 
place peculiarly adapted for establishing the worship 
of their patron deity. 

If we trace the Dionysiac worship still further 
northward, to the barbarian regions of Thrace, we see 
rites of cruelty and bloodshed superadded to the 
lawless indulgence of sensual passions. The female 
Bacchantes lose their feminine nature ; they are no 
longer mere creatures of sensual passion, but are 
maddened with the fury of drunken fiends. Inebri- 
ation leads to bloodshed, and tradition represents the 
Bacchanals, as rending asunder the mangled limbs of 
the Thracian Orpheus. 

The worship of Dionysus was evidently in all its 
developments, licentious and depraved. But there 
existed in Greece, another worship of a purer kind. 
Earth, the mother of all things, was to the Greeks 
the object of mysterious adoration, under the title of 
Demeter, (D) pfiriig). Mythology represented her as 
the mother of two children, Iacchus, who symbolized 
the joyous youthful principle of nascent and reviving 
a See Q&ys. xix. 172. 



278 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

nature ; and Proserpine, inhabiting the regions of 
gloom and darkness, and symbolizing the death and 
decay which succeed to the bright and cheerful seasons 
of the year. This mythical faith had a moral as well 
as a natural signification. It represented man's sor- 
row and despair at being cast out from the favour of 
heaven, on account of sin, and the joy which he ex- 
periences when he is forgiven and reconciled. Such 
were the truths symbolized in the Eleusinian mys- 
teries, which taught also the immortality of the soul, 
and a future state of rewards and punishments. And 
when their annual festival took place, its ceremonies 
commenced with expiatory and propitiatory rites, and 
ended with gay processions, in honour of Iacchus, 
and scenes of joy and revelry. 

The Eleusinian rites then, and the views which they 
inculcated, were chaste, pure, and solemn; the worship 
of Dionysus, on the other hand, was licentious, and 
encouraged the indulgence of sensual passion ; but 
there was some similarity between the truths symbo- 
lized in so different a manner. There was sufficient 
affinity to admit of amalgamation, and the purifying of 
the one by the influence of the other. 

At some period or other, it is uncertain when, this 
amalgamation took place, and the two worships were 
united together. Hence the chorus in the "Antigone," a 
addresses Bacchus as ruling in the united mysteries of 
Demeter and Dionysus. It is probable that a more en- 
lightened age perceived the licentious abuses to which 
a Verse 1106. 



RURAL DIONYSIAC FESTIVALS. 279 

the Dionysiac worship led, and that its wild debauchery 
was sobered by this combination with a purer 
ceremonial. 

If Greek tragedy is traced from its first origin, the 
following will be found to have been the progressive 
steps by which it advanced to perfection. 

The village Dionysiac festival gave rise to rude ex- 
temporaneous poetry, in which the sorrows and 
triumphs of the patron deity were celebrated. Then 
succeeded the cyclian chorus, which was composed of 
fifty practised performers, and their hymns were com- 
posed by the dithyrambic poet. Even in this early 
stage, it might be expected that the performers 
would adopt a theatrical costume. The dance, the 
song, the music, were all imitative, and dress and 
disguise would realize the subject and heighten the 
illusion. The simplest garb which they would adopt, 
would be that of the companions of Dionysus, in 
peace and war, in sorrow and triumph, in toil and 
festivity. These were the supernatural inhabitants of 
wood, and cave, and fountain ; the satyrs, grotesque 
to our ideas, but still partners with the god in scenes 
of tragic interest, according to the popular mythology. 
The first step to the introduction of costume, was to 
attire these imaginary beings in the skins of goats. 
Their songs and dances were sportive as well as 
serious ; the varied adventures of Dionysus had both 
these aspects : there is therefore no more inconsist- 
ency in the union of the comic and tragic elements 
in one piece, than there is in the introduction of 



280 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

comic characters and comic scenes in the plays of 
Shakspeare. 

Afterwards, when tragedy assumed a serious and 
grave form, and dignity and pathos were recognised 
as its characteristics, the satyrs were banished from it, 
to a drama of their own, and as the farqe follows the 
tragedy, so a satyric drama formed the fourth in every 
tragic tetralogy. 

It is said that Arion a was not only the inventor of 
the dithyrambic poetry, b but also attired the singers in 
the garb of satyrs. If this be the case, theatrical 
costume, in its simplest form, dates as far back as the 
times of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. 

In the age of Thespis, c a native of Icaria, a 
village near Athens, this banishment of the satyrs 
from tragedy had not taken place. The choreu- 
tse still, generally speaking, represented satyrs, but be- 
tween their songs he introduced a performer, who 
recited some mythological legend relating to Dionysus. 
This performer w T ore an appropriate mask and costume, 
and accompanied his recitation with suitable action. 
He was, therefore an actor, and consequently Thespis 
is properly considered as having invented the dramatic 
form of tragedy ; but, at this period, there was no plot, 
nor was there any dialogue, except between the actors 
and the chorus. Between these, however, a dialogue 
was maintained, and from this circumstance, an actor 
derived his name vvozgirris, i.e., respondent to the 
chorus. 

a Herod, i. 24, b Ibid. v. 67. ■ b.c. 536. 



TRAGEDIES OF PHRYNICHUS. 281 

In this condition tragedy remained until the time of 
Phrynichus, who exhibited his first tragedy, B.C. 511. 
The subjects of tragedy were now no longer confined 
to the adventures of Dionysus. The single actor re- 
cited such events, historical or mythological, as were 
calculated to move the feelings of the spectators. The 
chorus represented characters illustrating the recita- 
tion. In one play they were the daughters of Danaus; 
in another they were Phoenician women whom war 
had deprived of their fathers, brothers, or husbands ; 
in a third they were Milesian captives. Respecting 
this play, Herodotus a informs us that its pathos was so 
great that the whole audience burst into tears, and the 
Athenian people sentenced the poet to pay a fine of 
one thousand drachmae for representing the calamities 
of a people with whose woes they sympathised. Suidas 
enumerates ten tragedies, written by Phrynichus ; 
but he omits that of the Phoenicians. It is evident, 
from the anecdote just related, that he possessed dra- 
matic and pathetic talent of a very high order; and, 
probably, the introduction of female characters, which 
is attributed to him, was owing to his skill in moving 
the softer passion of pity, rather than the other dra- 
matic passion of terror. 5 He appears also to have been 
celebrated for the gracefulness of the dances which he 
invented, and for the beautiful, although archaic, taste 
of his lyric odes. It is clear that in the tragedies of 
Phrynichus, the separation of the tragic from the 

a Herod, vi. 21. b Vide Arist. Poet. 

c Suidas ; Plat. Symp. iii. ; Aves, 750 ; Ranse, 908. 



282 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

satiric element, must have taken place. His contem- 
porary, Choerilus, B.C. 523, a may be considered as 
having probably developed the satiric dramas, if we 
may place any confidence in the following verse of an 
anonymous poet: — 

'Hviica. [lev ftacriXevg i\v XotptXog ev SarvpotQ? 

which attributes to him preeminence in this kind of 
composition. During forty years Choerilus c continued 
an exhibition of tragedies ; and, during that time, pro- 
duced one hundred and fifty tragedies, and gained 
thirteen victories. 

The tradition that Choerilus excelled in the satiric 
drama, and the undoubted fact that a satiric chorus 
could not possibly have harmonised with the affecting 
tragedies of Phrynichus, constitute fair grounds for 
assuming that the separation of the tragic and satiric 
dramas commenced with him. The grammarians, how- 
ever, attribute the first introduction of pure satiric 
dramas to Pratinas/ a native of Phlius, resident at 
Athens, who did not exhibit until more that twenty 
years later than Choerilus. 6 The probability however 
is, that he completed the separation which had already 
been begun, and then devoted his talents to perfect- 
ing that drama which he had assisted in founding. He 
wrote, also, hyporchematic lyric poems, f which were 
probably introduced by way of choruses in his satiric 
dramas. Choerilus also appears to have stoutly main- 

* Suidas. b See Smith's Diet, and Miiller's Hist. 

c Suidas. d Ibid. s. v. e b.c. 500. 

f Athenseus, xiv. 617. 



PRATINAS A DORIAN. 283 

tained the superior importance of poetry as compared 
with music, and to have opposed the encroachments of 
the latter, when there appeared danger lest the instru- 
mental accompaniment should drown the voice of the 
singer, and music become predominant instead of 
auxiliary. 

Pratinas was a Phlian, and therefore a Dorian. 
After him tragedy became exclusively Athenian. It 
had already, since the days of Pisistratus, become 
naturalized in that capital, but Dorian influences had 
been the strongest, and the lyric element in which 
the drama originated prevailed. From this period 
it became gradually less important, and the tendency, 
which had already begun to show itself slightly even 
in the plays of Thespis, to less of a lyric and more 
of the dramatic element, is now plainly visible ; it 
also now began to satisfy those conditions which 
modern taste considers essentially dramatic, and to 
display those inimitable excellencies which distinguish 
it in its best period. 

The era of Athenian political greatness, and that 
in which Athenian tragedy flourished, exactly coin- 
cide. The first dramatic contest of iEschylus, in 
which he contended with Chcerilus and Pratinas, took 
place B.C. 499, and the years in which were fought 
the battles of Arginusaa and iEgospotarnos a were 
marked by the deaths of Euripides and Sophocles. b 

During this period many tragic writers lived, such 
as were Aristarchus of Tegea (b.c. 454); Achaaus of 
a b.c. 406. b b.c. 405. 



284 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Eretria (b.c. 447) ; Xenocles, who was victorious over 
Euripides (b.c. 415); Agathon (b.c. 416); and Eu- 
pliorion, the son of iEschylus himself. Each of these 
roust have composed and exhibited a vast number of 
tragedies; nevertheless, with the exception of a few 
fragments, none remain to us. Many of those which 
have perished were probably of great beauty, because 
iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were all occasion- 
ally beaten by competitors, and even the "(Edipus 
Rex" and the "Medea" were unsuccessful. Making, 
therefore, all allowances for popular caprice, the tes- 
timony of success would of itself prove that some of 
their compositions would bear comparison with those 
w r hich we now admire. Still, the fact that so many 
plays of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides have 
survived, whilst all the rest have perished, may well 
make us feel satisfied, that, upon the whole, we possess 
the finest specimens of the Greek dramatic writings, 
and that although occasionally a play may have pleased 
more, the public voice of Athens assigned the palm 
to the three great tragedians. On this point, we 
can appeal to the comic poet 54 who, although in his 
love and admiration for antiquity he does not refuse 
praise to the older dramatists, admits none of them 
as candidates for the tragic throne. 
a Aristoph. Batrach. 



HOMERIC SPIRIT OF THE POETS. 285 



CHAPTER III. 

HOMERIC SPIRIT OF THE THREE GREAT TRAGIC POETS. T HKIK RELI- 

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SYMBOLISM OF THIS TRILOGY. POLITICAL OBJECT OE THE ETZME- 

5TDES. — QUOTAWC I 

Although the revival of a taste :or epic poetry, 
by the exertion? ot Pisistratus. gave a fresh impulse 
to literature ; still, in the long interval which had 
elapsed between the time of Homer and the rise 
Athenian tragedy. Greek intellect :ad made great 
advances. The language, the tone of thought, the 
numerous Homerisms of zEschylus. and even of So- 
phocles, show thai the three great dramatists were 
embued with the Homeric spirit, and JEsehylus mo- 
tly termed h:^ tragedies only slices from the niiirhtv 
feasts of Homer: 2 but still this spirit was modified by 
that of their own age. 

They were as creative as Homer was. but their 
liberty of creating was confine ] within certain bounds. 
* Athenseus, viii. 39. 



286 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and limited by the recognized laws of human action. 
Heroic as were their characters, they must act ac- 
cording to the moral principles which govern man. 
The pure and awful conception which philosophic 
Greece now formed of the divine nature, would not 
permit it to be defiled by mean or petty passions, 
or swayed by unworthy motives. The whole religious 
creed of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides was 
totally different from that of Homer, except the mere 
names of the deities, and the machinery of mythology. 
Homer's gods were, as we have seen, rather par- 
tizans, than impartial protectors of the human race 
carrying out in their government the eternal principles 
of immutable justice. The peace of Olympus was 
disturbed by petty quarrels and unworthy jealousies; 
their e very-day life was sensual, their characters were 
marked with the lowest immorality. They were able 
to be bribed by their worshippers. Sacrifice was a 
mere price for favour, not an offering of atonement 
or propitiation. Deceit and fraud were unscrupu- 
lously used. Zeus himself, the father of gods and 
men, was often treated with disrespect, and was, like 
man, subject to an irresistible Destiny. 

The supreme being of iEschylus and Sophocles 
is purer, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, 
all-seeing, omnipresent, subject neither to sleep nor 
age. Destiny still existed, still ruled mankind, but 
its power was subordinate to the supreme will of 
God (cc'iaa), the divine command, and the eternal 
principles of justice. 



DIFFERENT PHASES OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 287 

The mythological features and traditions which 
remain, are those which, in the histories of the great 
tragic families, describe the undying vengeance of a 
pure God exercised against the sinner. The punish- 
ment which pursues unceasingly the violator of the 
house of life, the perjurer, the adulterer, the violator 
of hospitality, until he is penitent, purified, and 
reconciled. 

As Homer, Pindar, iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euri- 
pides may be considered as the representatives of suc- 
cessive poetical eras, so their poetry may be said to 
embody different phases of Greek religious belief. 
Homer represents the popular, Pindar the priestly 
creed; iEschylus and Sophocles that mysterious need 
of comfort and support from on high, and riddance 
of the burden of sin, of which the human heart is 
naturally conscious; Euripides, that philosophical 
belief which fast degenerates, first into scepticism, and 
next into infidelity. 

iEscHYLUS, born B.C. 525. 

iEschylus was the son of Euphorion, born at Eleusis 
in Attica, B.C. 525, a and therefore a native Athenian. 
His father is supposed to have been employed in 
the mystical worship of Demeter, and from those 
awful rites in which he is said to have been initiated 
may have been derived that supernatural grandeur 
and religious solemnity which pervade his tragedies. 
a Olym. lxiii. 4. 



288 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

At an early age he devoted himself to poetry. Pau- 
sanias a relates, that being employed when a boy in a 
vineyard, he dreamed that Dionysus appeared to him, 
and commanded him to write tragedy; he obeyed the 
vision. He first contended for the tragic prize against 
Pratinas and Choerilus, B.C. 499. But he was not 
a successful competitor until B.C. 484, a year signalized 
by the birth of Herodotus. His " Persians," the ear- 
liest of his dramas which have come down to us, was 
exhibited with the "Phineus," "Glaucus Potnieus," 
and the satiric play entitled " Prometheus, the Fire- 
bearer," B.C. 472. Four years afterwards he was van- 
quished by Sophocles, and, vexed at his defeat, retired 
from Athens to the court of Hiero, b who received 
him with his usual kindness and hospitality. Suidas c 
attributes his exile to the fall of the wooden benches 
in the theatre, an accident for which the dramatic 
poet was held partially responsible. The most pro- 
bable cause, however, of his exile was religious per- 
secution on account of his philosophical opinions, and 
the unpopularity of his political sentiments. He was 
a Pythagorean, d and therefore too enlightened to 
believe the fictions of the popular mythology; and 
Aristotle 6 tells us that a charge of impiety had been 
brought against him, with reference to the Eleusinian 
mystery. The "Eumenides" shows that he was deeply 
attached to the old aristocratical institutions of his 
country, and that he did not think it consistent with 

a Paus. i. 21-2. b Plutarch. Cim. 8. c Suidas, s. v. 

d Cic. Tusc. ii. 10. e Eth. Nic. iii. 1. 



DEATH OF iESCHYLUS. 289 

his duty as a public instructor to shrink from sup- 
porting them against the innovations of the demo- 
cratic party. Not that the " Eumenides " had as yet 
been exhibited, for the Orestean trilogy was not 
acted until B.C. 458. But as, immediately after that 
event, he a second time retired to Sicily, it is 
probable that his former visit may have been caused 
by similar unacceptable sentiments having appeared 
in some of his former dramas. In the decision of the 
prize, however, it is not probable that politics had 
any share, for Cimon a was one of the judges who de- 
cided in favour of his young competitor. 

iEschylus was a warrior b as well as a poet ; the 
field of Marathon witnessed his prowess as well as 
that of his brothers, Aminias and Cynsegirus, of whom 
the former opened the attack at Salamis. d Accident 
was the cause of his death, in the sixty-ninth year of 
his age, B.C. 456, at Gela, the place of his exile : an 
eagle let fall a tortoise on the poet's bald head, mis- 
taking it for a stone, and thus he died, as an oracle is 
said to have foretold, by a stroke from heaven. The 
Gelans instituted public games in his honour, and in- 
scribed on his tomb an epitaph which he himself had 
written; in which, as Athenseus 6 observes, he shows 
that he valued his fame as a warrior far higher than 
his reputation as a poet. 

'AXfO/V <f evdonifzov MapaOwviov a\aog av e'ltcoi, 
Kai fiadvyaiTi)UQ Mrjdog k'KiardixtvoQ, 

a Plutarch, vit. Cim. b Suidas, s. v. 

c Herod, vi. 114. d Ibid. viii. 48. e Athen. xiv. 23. 

VOL. I. U 



290 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

To have been one of those distinguished by the title 
Mugufavopayyi was his highest glory. In his "Persians," 
in the descriptions of Grecian triumph and Persian 
ruin, no one can fail to see that the language is in- 
spired by the enthusiasm of one who was an actor in 
the scenes which he paints so vividly ; and we sympa- 
thise with the saying of Gorgias, that when he wrote 
that play, Mars and not Dionysus, was the author of 
his inspiration. When the dramatic prize was awarded 
to Sophocles, iEschylus felt conscious that it had been 
voted unjustly, and appealed to the judgment of pos- 
terity. The confidence which he reposed in posterity, 
was responded to by his immediate successors ; for no 
sooner was he dead than money was granted from the 
public treasury to defray the cost of exhibiting his tra- 
gedies, and four prizes were awarded to his son, Eu- 
phorion, for tragedies exhibited by him, but written by 
his father. 

Every critic, from Quinctilian a downwards (and we 
learn from Aristophanes b that an example of this cri- 
ticism was set by his own countrymen), has been in the 
habit of condemning the style of JEschylus, as bom- 
bastic and exaggerated. But in this criticism they have 
too much lost sight of the subjects which his dramas 
embodied, and the characters which gave utterance to 
his gigantic words; — they were vast, supernatural, 
sketched in rough, obscure, and vague outlines ; they 
stand forth in dreamy proportions, figures of another 
world, leaving much to be filled up by the imagina- 
a Quinct. Inst. Or. x. 1. b Vide Ranse. 



STYLE OF .ESCHYLUS. 291 

tion. Of the two tragic passions, he felt and excited 
terror rather than pity, and he called forth terror by 
veiling his characters in an awful gloominess, as though 
conscious that sublimity would be destroyed if their 
forms were accurately delineated and brought out into 
the broad daylight. Terror is nurtured and enhanced 
by concealment, whilst pity is the result of sympathy, 
and sympathy requires that the object in whose behalf 
it is invited, should be plainly depicted and accurately 
known. 

In objects of supernatural terror, the exhibition 
should be somewhat of the nature of a phantasma- 
goria, like the shadowy shapes which flit before the 
eyes of Cassandra in her prophetic vision; a too much 
reality dispels the illusion, and changes that which 
would be sublime into the ridiculous. iEschylus al- 
ways avoids this error : we never see his supernatural 
machinery. The same conception of the true nature 
of the sublime, which suggested his subjects, inspired 
his language likewise ; his metaphors, sometimes harsh, 
sometimes even confused ; his rugged compounds have 
just that degree of obscurity which produces instead 
of injuring sublime effect. The quick sensibilities of 
his audience, who could follow him with ease through 
a difficult figure, and that facility of composition which 
is a distinguishing feature of the Greek language, and 
which no modern language possesses, except the Ger- 
man, tempted him to indulge his imagination without 
limit. 

a ^Esck. Agam. 

u 2 



292 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The language of iEschylus is the language of gods 
and of heroes ; it is as appropriate to the sentiments 
which it embodies and the characters which give it 
utterance, as the mask and the cothurnus which he 
invented, and the costume which he improved in mag- 
nificence, were calculated to give dignity, and as the 
scene-painting which he introduced was powerful in 
assisting the illusion. 

The non-existence of grammatical science is another 
cause of the obscurity of his style, for which he is 
not responsible. There was no regular syntax to curb 
his abruptness, or to create an artificial connexion 
between one idea and the next in a series. The 
principle which regulated language was then, and 
even as late as the time of Thucydides, rather at- 
traction than government ; and even this early prin- 
ciple was, in the time of iEschylus, deficient in power. 
His style is like his thought, grand as an Egyptian 
temple, or the Cyclopian edifices of the Pelasgians; or> 
to use the words of Miiller, " like a temple built of 
huge rectangular blocks of polished marble." a 

But the stately and sublime iEschylus does not he- 
sitate to descend to the homeliest details, if he thinks 
that it will make the picture more graphic and the 
character more true to life. The nurse in the "Cho- 
ephori," b specifies the minutest details with the 
garrulity and absence of delicacy which mark the old 
attached domestic, who knows no other way of de- 
scribing her affection than by enumerating the little 
a Miiller's Hist, of Lit. p. 335. b Choeph. 721. 



NUMBER OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 293 

offices which she performed for her charge in infancy ; 
and the contrast is put in a strong light between the 
little cares which she then bore patiently, and her 
overwhelming sufferings at his loss, and the ruin of the 
house of Agamemnon. 

iEschylus is said to have composed seventy trage- 
dies ; according to Suidas, a ninety, in a space of forty- 
four years, and to have gained either eighteen or 
thirteen victories. Besides these he wrote elegies, 
and his satiric dramas are said to have possessed merit 
equal to that of his tragedies. 

Seven tragedies are still extant, which all formed 
parts of connected trilogies ; for Sophocles was the 
first who exhibited as a trilogy three tragedies, which 
had no connection. 

The earliest of these dramas is the " Persians," 
exhibited B.C. 472. b It formed the second tragedy in 
a trilogy, of which the "Phineas" was the first, and the 
" Glaucus Pontius" was the third. It is the only his- 
torical play which we possess, and its subject was the 
triumph of Greece over the power of Persia. 

" The Seven against Thebes " stands next in chrono- 
logical order. It connects the destinies of Thebes with 
the terrible curse pronounced by (Edipus on Eteocles 
and Polynices, and fulfilled in their unnatural and 
deadly strife. It is the second in a trilogy of which the 
third was the " Eleusinians," and the first is unknown. 
There is nothing, perhaps, which so strikingly proves 

a Suidas, s. v. and Vit. iEsch. 
b Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. 



294 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the pathetic superiority of Sophocles to iEschylus as 
a comparison of the Antigone of this drama with the 
heroine of Sophocles. 

The next trilogy embodied the history of the house 
of Danaus. The first and last plays are lost, but the 
second was the extant play of the " Suppliants." Al- 
though deficient in dramatic interest, its choral odes 
are of great beauty. 

In the "Prometheus Bound" a tritagonistes is intro- 
duced, an improvement which is due to Sophocles; 
this, therefore, marks it as one of iEschylus's latest 
compositions. The first of this trilogy was the " Pro- 
metheus the Fire-bringer," the third the " Prometheus 
Unbound." 

It is difficult to reconcile the plot of this drama 
with the religious submission and devotion to the will 
of the Supreme Being, which characterizes iEschylus. 
It appeals to our sympathies more pathetically than 
any other of his tragedies, and yet they are against 
Zeus and on the side of his victim. Terror is excited 
by the fearful punishment which has overtaken stub- 
born resistance and defiance of Zeus, and is heightened 
by the Salvator Rosa-like scenery which is so sub- 
limely described ; but pity is also awakened in behalf 
of the friend of man, who suffers because of his 
benevolence. 

Prometheus the Titan, who represents man's inven- 
tive intellect, has doubtless, in the opening drama, 
blessed man with the gift of fire and all those arts of 
life which would accompany such a gift, as well as 



PLOTS OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 2,95 

those blessings of which fire may be considered a 
mythical representation ; but intellectual eminence, 
unchecked and uncontrolled, has led to arrogance, 
presumption, and impiety. 

In the second play, Prometheus' punishment has 
commenced. He is chained to the bare scathed rocks 
of Caucasus. Though severe, his punishment is de- 
served ; he has sinned and will not make submission. 
The reasonings and persuasions of Oceanus and his 
daughters, even of the god Hermes himself, are all in 
vain ; he still daringly braves the wrathful thunder- 
bolts of Zeus. 

Still his strong will and his dauntless and unbend- 
ing spirit command our respect, and produce a convic- 
tion that his sin is not such as to awaken indignation, 
but the error of a great mind. Hence the skill with 
which iEschylus has combined his religious lesson 
with the dramatic interest which must be on the side 
of suffering. We sympathise with the resolution of 
Prometheus, although we feel that he is in error, and 
at the same time we are convinced that the authority 
of Zeus must, at all risks, be maintained. 

The last three plays which are extant fortunately 
form a complete trilogy. It is the last which he 
exhibited; the date of it is B.C. 458. a The legend 
which it embodies is that of Orestes, and the three 
dramas which form it are " Agamemnon," " Choe- 
phori," and "Eumenides." 

The subject of the " Agamemnon " is the sin and 
a Clinton's Fasfci Hellenici. 



296 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

punishment of that monarch. His sin is ambition, 
his punishment ruin and death in the moment of tri- 
umph and prosperity. In the furtherance of his am- 
bitious views, he has been regardless of human life 
(woXvxrovog)* and has, by the sacrifice of his daughter 
Iphigenia, shown himself insensible to natural affec- 
tion. Hence, in this play, contrast is the chief beauty. 
The splendour of his conquest, the wealth of the royal 
house to which he belongs, are painted in glowing 
colours, b in order to make his fall appear more striking 
and terrible. But besides his own sin, ancestral guilt 
presses heavily upon him. Cassandra, in her prophetic 
vision, beholds the shades of the murdered children of 
Thyestes, and connects this tale of horror with the 
approaching catastrophe. iEgisthus, too, according to 
the laws of blood-guilt, is the appropriate avenger, for 
he is a son of Thyestes. 

Although the sins of Agamemnon are sufficient to 
vindicate the justice of heaven, there is nothing to 
palliate the horrible crime of Clytemnestra. We 
cannot sympathise with her first jealousy of Cassan- 
dra, for, as an adulteress, she has forfeited all title 
to sympathy, and we know that this is not her real 
motive, but that the deed was premeditated so long 
before, as the line of telegraphic signals had been 
posted by her orders. 

Clytemnestra has nothing feminine in her character 
— we scarcely remember that she is woman. She is a 
compound of the worst vices, lust, cruelty and subtlety. 
a Verse 460. b Agam. 934, 1010 ; also Choeph. 788. 



PLOTS OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 297 

She murders her husband under the mask of con- 
jugal love, and, when the deed is done, her moral 
sense is so depraved, that she defends the act by 
cunning sophistry. 

In the " Choephori," remorse begins at length to 
exert its power. Like Lady Macbeth, Clytemnestra 
is tortured by horrible dreams, and seeks to appease 
the manes of her murdered husband, by offerings at 
his tomb. She dreams that she has given birth to a 
serpent, and suckled it with her blood. Orestes, at 
the command of Apollo, and threatened, if disobedient, 
with the Furies of his father, enters the palace in 
disguise, pretending to bring the news that he is dead. 
iEgisthus is first slain, and Orestes then meets Clytem- 
nestra, his sword still reeking with the blood of her 
paramour. The ensuing scene is deeply affecting; she 
appeals to him by a mother's love ; he hesitates, — but 
only for a moment. They disappear : soon the palace 
doors open, and, behold, the guilty pair sleep, side by 
side, the sleep of death. They have kept their oath 
— in death they are not divided. 

God's slow and sure revenge against murder, mur- 
der most unnatural, has taken effect, and its ter- 
rible nature is enhanced, by the twofold character in 
which Orestes appears, as his father's avenger, and his 
mother's murderer. 

Firmly persuaded, as Orestes is, that he is acting in 
obedience to the command of Loxias, he cannot still 
the remorseful voice of conscience, until the unna- 
tural bloodshed is expiated and atoned for. Visions 



298 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of the angry " hounds " of his mother flit around him, 
invisible to other eyes. a They weep tears of blood, 
and seem so numerous, as to fill all space. They drive 
him from his native land, and force him to be an 
exile until he has obtained purification. 

This catastrophe prepares us for the opening of 
the " Eumenides ; " it is the link which connects the 
action of the two plays with one another. 

The " Eumenides" opens with the appearance of the 
terrified Pythoness, who announces b that the holy 
shrine is occupied by a suppliant, whose head and sword 
drop blood, and that female forms, like Gorgons and 
Harpies, black, and distilling from their eyes loath- 
some rheum, are slumbering around him. The shade 
of Clytemnestra appears, and awakens them, and they 
find, that whilst they slept, their victim has, under the 
protection of Apollo, and guidance of Hermes, escaped 
to Athens. 

The scene now changes to the temple of Pallas, in 
the Athenian Acropolis. The judges are set; the 
cause is pleaded ; the ballot taken ; Pallas establishes 
the principle of Athenian law, that if the votes are 
equal, the defendant is acquitted. The result is 
equality, and Pallas, by one white ball, acquits the 
defendant. Orestes then departs with expressions of 
gratitude to Pallas, Loxias, and Zeus Soter, and pro- 
mises everlasting respect and friendship between 
Argos and Athens. 

The calm wisdom of Pallas appeases the frantic 
a ChoepL 1043. b Verse 34, k. r. X. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE ORESTEA. 299 

wrath of the Furies. She promises they shall be hence- 
forth worshipped at Athens, under the milder name 
of Eumenides, or the gracious deities, and they de- 
clare that they will bless the land which own her for 
its patron. 

This trilogy is full of symbolism. The power of 
faith, and of the consciousness of obedience to a 
divine command, to lull for a time the stings of an 
uneasy conscience, is represented by the Furies slum- 
bering, for a time, in the sacred shrine of Apollo, just 
as the Furies themselves symbolize the remorseful 
terrors of a guilty conscience, which pursue the sinner 
who has not made his peace with God and man. But 
this calm is temporary and imperfect ; conscience will 
awaken, nor can there be perfect peace, unless there 
is a sense of acquittal, justification, and reconciliation 
with God. Whence JEsehylus derived this sublime 
philosophy, it is impossible to say. Cicero asserts that 
he was a Pythagorean ; probably these truths which 
speak so naturally to the conscience promptings of the 
human heart, were drawn from a much wider study of 
Greek philosophy, than merely one system, and from 
a still deeper, and more comprehensive study, that of 
human nature itself. 

Again, does not the remorse of Orestes teach the 
poet's belief, that where the Deity has implanted in 
man moral instincts and natural affections, this evidence 
of his will cannot be violated with impunity under 
any circumstances \ Revelation and nature constitute 
equal obligations. Happy are we. who are taught to 



300 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

find, not only no antagonism, but a strict accordance 
between these two laws, which proceed from one and 
the same great Author. 

The ballot of Pallas symbolizes the principle of 
mercy ; mercy, not from man alone, but from God. 
Where man cannot decide, the voice of Heaven inter- 
feres, and declares that Heaven forgives, and therefore 
man must pardon also. 

But it is universally allowed, that this trilogy, and 
especially the concluding tragedy, had a political 
object. iEschylus felt it a sacred duty to support the 
ancient institutions of his country, as of divine origin, 
and therefore of divine right. He was as aristocratic 
and conservative as Sophocles was attached to the 
cause of freedom and progress. 

The court of Areopagus was not only venerable 
for its antiquity, and the solemn nature of those 
causes which were taken cognizance of by this tri- 
bunal, but from its constitution ; although much 
altered, it was still the stronghold of the aristocratic 
party. Hence it presented a great obstacle to the 
liberal policy of Pericles. Shortly before the time when 
this trilogy was exhibited (01. lxxx. 2), Ephialtes, an 
eminent general and statesman of his party, proposed 
a bill, the provisions of which struck a death-blow to 
this court of judicature. The result of it would have 
been, according to Cicero, a to render absolute, the 
political power of the ecclesia. Before this bill 
(-^r}<piG(jijcc) became ratified by law (vofjuog), Msehjlus 
a Cic. De Rep. i. 27. 



POLITICAL OBJECTS OF THE EUMENIDES. 301 

exhibited this trilogy, in order, if possible, -to stem the 
tide of democracy. Party spirit raged high, and 
although the opposition was ineffectual, and the mea- 
sure was ultimately carried, the proposer himself was 
assassinated, and the murderers were never discovered. 
This opposition on the part of JEschylus is perfectly 
in accordance with his general political principles. 
In an earlier period of his life, he had been a sup- 
porter of Aristides, and an opponent of Themistocles, 
at the time when they were at the head of the two 
opposite parties, afterwards led by Cimon and Pericles. 
Agreeably to these political sentiments, he extols in 
the " Persians," the exploits of Aristides, as compared 
with those of Themistocles, a whilst Herodotus, b whose 
political bias was evidently towards the democratical 
party, gives a somewhat different colouring to the 
transaction. 

Such was the primary political object of the " Eu- 
menides ; " it also had two others, secondary and subor- 
dinate. The promise of Orestes to maintain inviolable 
friendship with Athens, implied a recommendation on 
the part of the poet to cement a union and alliance 
between Athens and Argus, and the speech of Pallas 
(v. 375) is an attempt to rest on mythological grounds 
the claim of the Athenians to the disputed territory 
of the Troad. 

The passages of which the following are transla- 
tions, will serve as specimens of the innumerable 

a See MUller's Eum. ; Pers. 439, &c. b Herod, viii. 95. 



302 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

noble sentiments and beautiful ideas which delight 
the reader of the iEschylean tragedy. 

In the first chorus of the Agamemnon, he speaks of 
the struggle between the duties of the chieftain and 
the affection of a father : — 

An evil lot is mine to choose, 
Hard fate obedience to refuse, 

Hard fate to slay my child ! 
My home's bright ornament and pride ; 
'Twere hard if at the altar's side 
A father's hand were crimson-dyed ! — 

With virgin gore defiled. 
Still to whichever part I lean, 
Is sorrow's threatening aspect seen ; 
How may I leave my true allies ? 

How quit the host I lead ? 

Agam. 199 (Anstice). 

A few verses further on he describes the behaviour 

of the victim. 

Her pleading eyes shot Pity's dart, 
To rankle in each murderer's heart ; 
Like form by painter's fancy dreamed, 
So pale, so fair, so still she seemed. 

Agam. 239 (Anstice). 

The purity of divine justice and the certainty of 
retribution, are favourite topics. 

For vainly wealth's proud bulwarks tower, 

When man, in insolence of power, 

Justice, thy law disdains to know, 

And dares, with impious foot, thine altar overthrow. 

***** 

Yet treasured long, the meed of crime 

Shall whelm the wretch in after time. 

Agam. 360 (Anstice). 



TRANSLATIONS FROM ^SCHYLUS. 303 

Bow down to Justice — mortal man, attend ! 

Low at her spotless altar bend, 
Nor spurn with impious foot, allured by gain, 

Her holy shrine. For retribution's day, 
Fraught with the bitter certain meed of pain, 

Waits but its time the guilty to repay. 

Eumen. 488 (Anstice). 

Falsely, I ween, the sages told, 
In parables they framed of old, 
That glad success and future high, 
Beget a fatal progeny. 

***** 
***** 

For ne'er to righteous halls, 
Though wealth adorn their master's lot, 

Such evil offspring falls ; 
'Tis guilt alone that teems with sorrow. 

Agam. 710 (Anstice). 

'Tis true that Justice oft is found 

The smoke-dimmed cottage walls around, 

Shedding her purest light. 
In gilded palaces, where gain 
Leaves on its master's hand a stain, 
She speeds her holy flight, 
Disdainful stalking by, 
'In sullen majesty, 
Nor smiles on wealth that bears thy stamp, Iniquity ! 

Agam. 750 (Anstice). 

The following are descriptions of Menelaus' regrets 
and Helen's beauty : — 

Nor now delighted will he trace 
Her statue's imitative grace ; 
The dull cold stone may ill supply 
The living richness of her eye, 



304 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The dream with fancy's colouring warm, 

Departs an unsubstantial form, 

Glides through the arms that fain would clasp, 

And mocks the lover's eager grasp, 

Then spreads aloft its airy wings, 

That wait on slumber's wanderings. 

Agam. 409 (Anstice). 

The fable of the lion's cub, gentle and playful at 
first, but afterwards displaying its natural instinct for 
blood, introduces the subjoined description of Helen: — 

Bride of Paris, such art thou, 
To Ilium when thy venturous prow, 
First bore thee o'er the ocean brine, 
What melting loveliness was thine 1 
A spirit like the breathless calm 
When summer's gentle air is balm ; 
Eyes darting many a tender glance, 
An unassuming elegance ; 
Whose quiet charms new beauty lent 
To grace each costly ornament. 
Love's very flower whose bloom invites, 
Yet stings the gazer it delights. 

Agam. 700. 



SOPHOCLES COMPARED WITH iESCHYLUS. 305 



CHAPTER IV. 

Sophocles, bora b.c. 495. 



SOPHOCLES COMPARED WITH .JESCHYLUS. HIS BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND 

EDUCATION. DRAMATIC SUCCESS. APPOINTED ONE OF THE TEN 

GENERALS. UNFITNESS FOR THE OFFICE. HIS POLITICAL SENTI- 
MENTS AND CONDUCT. THE UNNATURAL CONDUCT OF HIS SON 

IOPHON. — CHORUS IN THE G3DIPUS COLONEUS. HIS DEATH. EPI- 
GRAMS OF SIMONIDES AND SIMMIAS. CHARACTER OF HIS POETRY. 

THE ETHICAL CHARACTER OF THE SOPHOCLEAN DRAMA. HIS 

DRAMATIC REFORMS. THE NUMBER OF HIS COMPOSITIONS. THE 

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THOSE EXTANT. ANTIGONE. ELECTRA. 

THE GRANDEUR OF ^SCHYLUS CONTRASTED WITH THE BEAUTY OF 
SOPHOCLES. 

Although in the grand and lofty conceptions of 
genius iEschylus was never surpassed, there are other 
points of excellence in which his successor Sophocles 
proved himself a worthy competitor. Sophocles had 
not the same lyrical power, but he had more har- 
mony and sweetness. His characters have not that 
awful and superhuman vastness, but they are more 
interesting and appeal more to our sympathies and 
affections, and in the construction of his plots he 
displays more dramatic skill, and approaches more 

vol. i. x 



306 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

nearly to that complex nature which is, perhaps, the 
only point in which modern tragedy is superior to 
that of Greece. He gave a finish and polish both to 
the language and poetry of the drama, without lower- 
ing the moral standard or impairing the dignity with 
which it was invested by iEschylus. 

Sophocles, a for a history of whose life there exist 
few authentic data, was an Athenian citizen, a native 
of the bright and cheerful suburban village of Co- 
lonus, b the natural beauty of which he himself has 
immortalized. According to Suidas, he was born 
about the seventy-third Olympiad; according to the 
" Parian Chronicle," in B.C. 496. c But the date usu- 
ally received is B.C. 495, thirty years subsequent to 
the birth of iEschylus. He was the son of Sophilus, 
who is said to have been a smith or a sword-cutler. 
If so, the liberal education which Sophocles received, 
and the high military command with which he was 
entrusted, prove that the commercial spirit of the 
Athenian republic did not despise the social position 
of the manufacturer, and, probably, in the case of 
Sophilus, as in that of the father of Demosthenes, 
it was a path which led to wealth. The beauty and 
gracefulness of his person equalled the elegance of 
his mind, d and he received a liberal education, includ- 
ing dancing and music. In the latter of those two 
accomplishments he was instructed, when very young, 
by Lamprus, a celebrated musician. In the public 

a Suidas, s. v. b Soph. (Edip. Colon. c Olym. lxxi., 2. 
d Athenaeus, i. 37. 



LIFE OF SOPHOCLES. 307 

rejoicings which took place after the victory of Sa- 
lamis, Sophocles was chosen, for his skill in these 
two arts, to lead the band of beautiful youths who 
danced around the trophy, and he himself sang the 
psean to the accompaniment of his lyre. He was then 
but fifteen ; so young did he become a servant of the 
Muses. 

At the age of twenty-seven he first came forward 
as a tragic poet, and contested the prize with iEschy- 
lus, who had now maintained his superiority for thirty- 
one years. The successful play is said to have been 
the " Triptolemus." It has perished, and therefore 
we have no opportunity of determining its merits ; 
the decision, however, might have been a fair one, 
although iEschylus considered it as unjust, for Cimon, 
whom the archon appointed as umpire, would, from 
his political bias, and, possibly, from the literary tastes 
in which he had been brought up, have been inclined 
to admire iEschylus. 

For twenty-eight years nothing is heard of him, 
but it may be assumed, that, during this period, he was 
never vanquished in a dramatic contest ; for although 
his young rival, Euripides, gained his first victory B.C. 
441, yet it does not appear that his adversary was 
Sophocles. 

In B.C. 440, he exhibited the most beautiful of his 
extant tragedies, the " Antigone." So delighted were 
the Athenians, not only with its dramatic excellence 
but its political principles, that they elected him one 
of the ten generals for the year. This proved by no 

x2 



308 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

means a suitable reward for the great poet. a The 
active business of military command was distasteful 
to one who was of a social and self-indulgent temper, 
and who enjoyed the calm repose of literary leisure. 
It is related in a passage of Athenaeus, that his col- 
league, Pericles, declared him to be a good poet but a 
bad general ; and the same anecdote, which paints in 
lively colours the sallies of his wit, hints that he was 
as unfitted for the diplomatic and civil functions at- 
tached to the office of strategus ; for that as a poli- 
tician he was neither sagacious nor energetic, but one 
of your simple, honest Athenians. Plutarch also re- 
lates that he modestly confessed his own inferiority, 
and that when, in a council of war, he was asked for 
his opinion before Nicias, he replied, " I am oldest 
in age, but you in wisdom." 

It was during the expedition against the aristocra- 
tical party in Samos, a war so congenial to his prin- 
ciples as well as to those of Pericles, that he formed 
his intimacy with the Athenian-minded Herodotus, 
who, in his admiration for the literature of his adopted 
country, seems so especially imbued with the spirit of 
Sophocles. 

He was a steady supporter of liberal principles, and 
the only instance of apparent inconsistency discover- 
able in his character, is when during the revolutionary 
period he was instrumental in establishing the Council 
of Four Hundred. 5 But it may be easily conceived, 
that in those times of fearful anarchy he thought such 
a Athen. xiii. 81 b Thuc. vii. 1.; Arist. Rhet. iii. 18. 



UNDUTIFUL CONDUCT OF HIS SOX- 309 

a measure, though abstractedly unconstitutional, was 
rendered necessary by the exigency of the crisis, and 
the only one likely to arrest the progress of affairs to 
a bloody revolution. Numerous sentiments in his 
plays bear witness to his attachment to the cause of 
freedom, and his whole life is one continued proof of 
his patriotism. He could not. as many other poets 
did in seasons of trouble, seek the protection of fo- 
reign despots, and live dependent on the favour and 
patronage of tyrants. From his birth to his death, he 
never left his country, except in the public service. 
The last work of his old age sang the praises of his 
native village, and is evidently dictated by a warm 
affection for his country. 

An affecting episode saddens the conclusion of the 
aged poet's life. 

Iophon was the eldest of his five sons ; and he, jea- 
lous of a son of his brother Ariston, who bore the poet's 
name, and fearing that Sophocles would bequeath to 
him a large share of his property, accused his aged 
father of mental imbecility. The only answer which 
the poet made to this unnatural charge, was the reci- 
tation of the beautiful chorus in the " JEdipus Colo- 
neus," which he had but lately written. His judges, 
struck with admiration, unanimously gave their verdict 
in his favour, and the poet returned to his home in 
triumph. 

It is impossible to read this truthful ode without 
realizing the language a in which the aged poet de- 
■ (Edip. Col 694. 



310 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

scribes the loveliness of his birth-place ; — one can ima- 
gine the triumphant answer which its recitation formed 
to the slander of his undutiful son. It seems as 
though when we read we walked with Sophocles in 
this fair spot, the fairest round Athens, and doubtless 
his favourite haunt. We are inclined to exclaim 
with Horace : — 

Auditis ? an me ludit amabilis 

Insania 1 audire et videor pios 
Errare per lucos, amcense 

Quos et aquae subeunt et aurse. 

We seem to hear the tuneful yet sad voice of the 
nightingale hidden in the dark green ivy and the clus- 
tering vine purpled with fruit, beneath whose shade 
sports the young Dionysus, surrounded by a revel rout 
of nymphs, his young nurses. Our feet press the crocus 
and the narcissus, and our ears are soothed by the mur- 
murs of the glassy Cephisus. 

How must the patriotic feelings of the Athenians 

have been moved when in the very sight of that hill 

where the contest took place between their divine 

benefactors and tutelary deities,* and of that sea which 

was the source of their glory and their wealth, and 

which enabled them to enjoy the fruits of all countries 

as though they were their own, b the chorus poured 

forth its concluding strain : 

Son of Saturn old, whose sway 
Stormy winds and waves obey, 
Thine be honour's well-earned meed, 
Tamer of the champing steed ; 

a Ovid. Met. vi. 70. b Thucyd. i. 



LEGENDS OF HIS DEATH. 311 

First he wore on Attic plain 
Bit of steel and curbing rein ; 
Oft too o'er the waters blue, 
Athens strain thy labouring crew, 
Practised hands the bark are plying 
Oars are bending, spray is flying, 
Sunny waves beneath them glancing, 
Sportive naiads round them dancing, 
With their hundred feet in motion, 
Twinkling 'mid the foam of ocean. 

(Edip. Col. v. 712 (Anstice). 

Of his death there are different traditions ; some say, 
and this legend is recorded in the following epigram 
of Simonides, a 

'Etr^e o6r) e, yrjpaiE 2o^>6K\e£g, avQog doi^iov, 

OlvOQTTOV ~Bq.IC^OV fiorpVV ep£7TT6fJL£VOg f 

Anthol. vii. 20, 
that he was killed by swallowing a grape stone; others 
that he expired whilst publicly reciting his "Antigone;" 
others that he died of joy on gaining a dramatic vic- 
tory. 11 These are poetic legends ; but as all agree in 
connecting his death with his career as a poet, he pro- 
bably died when his intellect and his poetical talent 
were still unimpaired, in the exercises of his beloved 
art, in extreme old age, without disease and without 
suffering. 

KaAwg ETeXevTrja ovcev inrofxeivag kgikov. 

Phrynichus. 

A beautiful epigram by Simmias, the Theban, is 
preserved in the Greek Anthology, of which the fol- 
lowing translation is well known : — 

a Simonides, Anth. Gr. vii. 20. b Vit. Anonym. 



312 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

'Hpeju' vTrip rvj.i€oio, k. t. X. 

Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade 
Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid ; 
Sweet ivy, wind thy boughs and intertwine 
With blushing roses and the clustering vine, 
Thus will thy lasting leaves with beauties hung, 
Prove grateful emblems of the lays he sung, 
Whose soul exalted by the god of wit, 
Among the Muses and the Graces writ. 

In the tragedies of Sophocles is seen the perfection 
of the Greek drama ; for although Aristotle pronounces 
Euripides to be the most tragic of poets ; a and Lon- 
ginus b pronounces him to have been unequalled in his 
tragic representations of love and madness, yet no 
tragic poet equalled Sophocles in combining dignity, 
purity, pathos, and piety, with the most refined genius 
and the highest poetical talent. The sweetness of his 
language obtained for him the appellation of the 
" Bee." c In the due proportion of the choral part to 
the dramatic, in the artificial construction of his plots, 
in metrical harmony and in polished diction, Sophocles 
developed and perfected the excellences of iEschylus ; 
he so moulded dramatic poetry, and accommodated it 
to human feelings, as to produce the greatest possible 
effect on the heart, and to afford the purest possible 
delight to a refined taste. Inferior to iEschylus in 
boldness of conception, his softer pictures are more 
soothing to the imagination. The thrilling superna- 
tural interest of iEschylus was adapted to enthral the 
mind of Greece in the infancy of dramatic literature, 

a Arist. Poet. xxvi. b Long. xv. 3. c Suidas, s. v. 



AESCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES COMPARED. 313 

just as the unreal wonders of the fairy tale and the 
romance delight childhood ; but a more educated and 
manly mind is better satisfied with scenes which have 
an air of reality, and may have their counterpart in 
actual life. We admire and stand in awe of the heroes 
of iEschylus : we sympathise with and feel for, those 
of Sophocles. 

In order to pity or sympathize, Aristotle ingeniously 
observes, we ought to be able to imagine, that the case 
which appeals to our feelings may possibly be our own. 
This condition is necessary in order to enable us fully 
to realize it to ourselves in all its features. 

The characters of iEschylus are of too superhuman 
a mould for this, we can never look upon them even 
when they are mortals, as standing in any relation 
to ourselves. They are either above man in excel- 
lence, or below him in wickedness. 

But it is not so with those of Sophocles. We can 
realize to ourselves an (Edipus struggling with a 
fate, which is at last too strong for him. We can 
feel for him, although his own faults and his own 
actions contribute their part to the fulfilment of the 
prophecies. Even his curse, which works such woe 
on his undutiful sons, like that of Shakspeare's Lear, 
is not inconsistent with the ungovernable wildness 
of human passion. The calm and dignified submission 
to the will of Heaven, with which (Edipus meets his 
fate, is that of a good and pious man, but it is not 
beyond the reach of human virtue. We can feel 
for the timidity of Ismene, and the unselfish heroism 



314 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of Antigone; great as it is, is not too high for the 
hope of successful imitation. In like manner, all 
can sympathize with the patience and endurance of 
Philoctetes, his hoping against hope in his desert 
solitude, with the jealous affection of Deianira, and 
the honest but mistaken pride of Ajax. 

In neither of the tragedians do morals hold a higher 
place than in Sophocles. He is essentially ethical. 
Interesting as his plots are, the interest forms but a 
small part of their merit. In every one, he sets be- 
fore his eyes the holy object of instilling a veneration 
for the will of heaven, and a respect for the laws 
and sanctions of immutable justice. 

Sophocles 3 applied the powers of mind to the tech- 
nical detail of his art, and therefore comes forward 
as a dramatic reformer, as well as a poet. He intro- 
duced the third actor ; b he increased the number of 
the chorus from twelve to fifteen, and thus rendered 
it more effective, whilst by shortening the choral odes 
he diminished the interruptions to the dramatic action ; 
at the same time he lengthened the dramatic portion. 
The standard length of tragedies had, at the time when 
Sophocles flourished, become considerably greater. 
The only extant play of iEschylus which is of the same 
length as those of Sophocles, is the " Agamemnon." 
This alteration in length is attributed by Suidas b to 
Aristarchus, who first exhibited about the middle of 
the fifth century before Christ. 

Sophocles is said to have written a prose essay on 
a Antig. 449. b Suidas, s. v. 



NUMBER AND ORDER OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 315 

the chorus, in answer to the theories of Thespis and 
Chcerilus. He was evidently the first to see, that in 
reality choruses should only be considered as periods 
of rest and repose to refresh the attention of the 
audience; for in his later dramas his choruses begin 
to have far less reference to the immediate action 
of the play, and are simply beautiful specimens of 
lyric poetry. The number of dramas, including tra- 
gedies and satiric dramas, which he wrote and exhi- 
bited was a hundred and thirteen, of whicb seven 
remain, comprehending most probably bis finest com- 
positions. "With respect to the order in which they 
were produced, nothing certain is known, except that 
the date of the " Philoctetes" is B.C. 409, and that 
of the " (Edipus Coloneus " B.C. 401 ; this play having 
been exhibited by the younger Sophocles as a posthu- 
mous work of his father's. The date of the "An- 
tigone," which is probably the earliest of the extant 
tragedies, is placed by Clinton and others B.C. 440. 
The following chronological order has been suggested 
by O. Miiller, 3 — " Antigone," " Electra," " Trachinise," 
"(Edipus Rex," "Ajax," "Philoctetes," "(Edipus 
Coloneus." 

The two leading ideas which pervade the beautiful 
tragedy of the " Antigone," are the supremacy of 
law and the sacredness of that affection wbich binds 
families together. These two ideas are painted in 
the strongest colours. The duties arising from these 
principles are represented in the play as in direct 
■ Midler's Hist. Greek Lit. xxiv. 3. 



316 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

antagonism to one another ; it seems scarcely possible 
to fulfil the just claims of both without violating the 
natural dictates of conscience. There appears to be 
no middle course open between insubordination and 
impiety. The moral lesson then, which the poet 
deduces from these conflicting difficulties is, that, 
great as both these principles are, human ordinances 
must not press their claims upon the conscience to 
an extreme. The claims of the state to the obedience 
of its citizens must be kept in subordination to the 
law of natural justice, or else it becomes tyranny, and 
as such, subject to divine vengeance. He who, like 
Antigone, firmly determines never to swerve from 
obedience to God's will written in the heart, which 
alone gives force and sanction to human laws, must 
be ready to suffer martyrdom for these high principles, 
and to submit to earthly sorrow and suffering in the 
cause of religion. The fate of Antigone is not a 
punishment, it is the penalty which, by God's ap- 
pointment, awaits those who have bravery and faith 
enough to prefer God to man, when they come in 
competition. The lesson it teaches is, that such is 
the fiery trial of virtue, that often we cannot choose 
whom we will serve, without being prepared to suffer 
for our moral consistency. The fate of Cleon, on 
the other hand, is punishment ; it falls heavily on his 
guilty head, as retribution almost invariably does in 
this life, and, as is generally the case, it involves 
in one common destruction the innocent and the 
guilty. 



CHARACTER OF ANTIGONE. 317 

In the i; Antigone " the tie of family affection is 
exhibited in its most sacred form. Reverence for the 
dead and the duties resulting from this reverence, 
formed, it is well known, an important part of 
Greek religion. 

The instinctive belief in a future state, and in a 
higher and more perfect condition of being than was 
enjoyed on earth, elevated the departed hero, or even 
the manes of a beloved relative, almost to the rank 
of a deity. The long, perhaps the eternal communion 
with each other, to be enjoyed by the departed, con- 
nects Antigone with a far stronger tie to her lost 
brother, than to all that remain on earth. "Far 
longer,'" she exclaims, u shall I have to please those 
below, than those here." 

The poets were deeply impressed with a feeling of 
the duties due to the dead ; it was this impression 
probably which induced Homer in his M Iliad," and 
Sophocles in his B Ajax," to prolong their respective 
poems, beyond that which otherwise would naturally 
have been the true and appropriate catastrophe. The 
character of Antigone may be thought in parts, harsh, 
severe, unfeminine ; but conscious heroism, when disap- 
pointed of meeting with sympathy where it has aright 
to expect it, is naturally, on the first impulse, severe ; 
and no one can read the sad and affecting lament of 
Antigone, when led on her last path to death, her 
touching appeals, her sense of unpitied loveliness, and 
not trace therein, all the tenderest feelings of woman's 
nature. 



318 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The beauty of the "Electra" consists in the concen- 
tration of the entire interest in the person of the 
heroine. She is the point to which all the rajs con- 
verge, the principal figure round which all the others 
are grouped. It is impossible to forget her for a 
moment, she can never be absent from the thoughts of 
the reader. The grand idea which had possession of 
the mind of JEschylus, in his corresponding play, was 
divine vengeance, consummated by the deaths of 
iEgisthus and Clytemnestra. This view was necessary 
to maintaining the connexion of events in the Ores- 
teian trilogy. Sophocles was not fettered by such 
necessity, he had introduced the custom of exhibiting 
three unconnected plays, instead of a connected 
trilogy. He was therefore at liberty to view in an in- 
dependent light, the legend which furnished him, as 
well as iEschylus, with a subject for tragedy. Al- 
though, therefore, the scene in which the body of 
Clytemnestra is shown to iEgisthus, and he finds, to 
his horror, that it is his paramour, and not Orestes, is, 
without exception, the finest, and the most elabo- 
rately worked up, of any which he wrote, the death 
of Clytemnestra is not the great object to which the 
reader looks with interest. He is absorbed in the con- 
templation of Electra's character, and the effect which 
the action of the play will produce upon her mind. 
He watches the workings of her mind, her strong and 
irrepressible impulses of hatred against the sin of her 
mother, and therefore against her mother also, excited 
to the utmost pitch, by the insults heaped upon her by 



CHARACTER OF ELECTRA. 319 

the murderess and the usurper. The analysis, so to 
speak, of her nature, agitated by these strong emotions, 
form the subject which the poet proposed to himself to 
paint, and which he has delineated so minutely and ex- 
actly. The first origin, as well as all the consequent 
motives to the terrible deed of vengeance, proceed from 
her. She it was who saved her infant brother Orestes 
from death, and from her unextinguishable hatred of the 
murderer, and unwearied devotion to the holy cause of 
avenging her beloved father s death, and consequently 
her continual exhortations to her brother to return, 
all the incidents of the tragedy, are developed. Like 
Antigone, Electra is a model of constancy in her 
purpose, though, unlike the constancy of Antigone, hers 
proceeds from impulse, rather than from a sense of 
duty ; both are highminded, but Electra, from having 
all her life so much responsibility thrown upon her, is 
less feminine. These observations on two of the 
Sophoclean tragedies, will furnish the reader with a 
general idea of the mode in which this poet generally 
treats his subjects, and the analysis already given of 
the tragedies of iEschylus affords a sufficient specimen 
of the model after which a Greek tragedy was usually 
constructed. 

In minor points it is easy to contrast the serene 
beauty of Sophocles' mind, with the terrible grandeur 
of iEschylus. In both the "Choephori" and the 
" Electra," Clytemnestra is warned by a dream ; but 
in the former, she imagines that she has brought forth 
a serpent, and suckled it with her blood ; in the latter, 



320 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the sceptre of Agamemnon, again restored to life, is 
planted on the domestic hearth, gives forth buds and 
blossoms, and becomes a great tree, which fills the 
whole land. iEschylus paints throughout, the progress 
and completion of God's vengeance upon the murder- 
ers; Sophocles traces the transition of Electra's 
mind from grief and despair, to joy and thankfulness, 
at her unexpected reunion to her lost brother. In the 
" Choephori," Clytemnestra only appeals to a mother's 
love, in order to deprecate the avenger's wrath; in the 
" Electra," the mother's feelings at first burst forth, 
and stifle, though only for a moment, the exultations 
of triumphant ambition, when she hears the son is 
dead, for whom she felt a mother's pains. Even the 
trifling circumstance that Chrysothemis, the gentle 
unresisting daughter, is employed by her mother, to 
bring the offerings of the murderess to the tomb of 
the murdered hero, rather than Electra, who loathes 
her wickedness, shows that Sophocles avoided those 
strong contrasts which shock, because they are scarcely 
natural. 



THE THREE TRAGIC POETS. 321 



CHAPTER V. 

THE THREE TRAGIC POETS FORM SUCCESSIVE ERAS IN LITERARY TASTE. 
THESE ARE ANALOGOUS TO THE PROGRESS MADE BY THE INDIVI- 
DUAL MIND. EURIPIDES, HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER. RELIGIOUS, 

POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SENTIMENTS UNPOPULAR. UNJUSTLY 

SLANDERED. HIS SUPPOSED HATRED OF THE FEMALE SEX. STORY 

OF HIS MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES. HIS EXILE, DEATH, AND EPITAPH. 

THE AGE OF EURIPIDES A PHILOSOPHICAL ERA. THE EFFECTS 

OF THIS ON HIS POETRY. WAS EURIPIDES THE MOST TRAGIC OF 

POETS? HIS PROLOGUES. THE REAL OBJECTIONS TO THEM. THE 

USE WHICH HE MAKES OF DIVINE INTERPOSITION. HIS POLITICAL 

PRINCIPLES. HIS FONDNESS FOR SPECIAL PLEADING. HIS LYRIC 

POWER. MONODIES. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PLAYS. — ALCESTIS. 

MEDEA. HECUBA. ELECTRA. CYCLOPS. PASSAGES FROM THE TRA- 
GEDIES OF EURIPIDES. — ION. ACH^US. AGATHON. — EUPHORION. 

IOPHON. THE YOUNGER SOPHOCLES AND EURIPIDES. CH.EREMON. 

THEODECTES. 

Euripides, born b.c. 480. 

So great are the absolute excellencies of Euripides, 
and yet so manifest his defects, as compared with Ms- 
chylus and Sophocles, that it is difficult to determine 
whether his dramas show an advance or decline in 
tragic poetry. Thus much at least is plain, that the 
characteristic features of his writings mark a new era 
in the public taste, whilst an independent boldness of 
thought which pervades them, proves that he was not 

VOL. I. Y 



322 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

one to imitate even the beauties and perfections of 
others, or to belong to a school, but able and deter- 
mined to strike out a new line for himself. 

The natural law of progress in literary taste, may be 
traced in the works of the three great tragic poets. 
They seem, as' the leading minds of their age succeed- 
ing each other at such intervals as to occupy amongst 
them the period of three generations, to be the repre- 
sentatives and directors of popular taste in its gradual 
growth and development. The mysterious and superna- 
tural wonders of iEschylus are succeeded by the digni- 
fied and heroic, but nevertheless natural, characters of 
Sophocles ; and these, in their turn, give place to the 
romance of private every-day life, the unexaggerated 
picture of manners, in which the human heart and the 
affections which influence it in its domestic relations, 
constitute the leading subject. A view of human nature 
is exhibited, which shocks us at first as embodying a 
low standard, but which is in fact not below reality. 
In it one of the great moving springs of action is sexual 
love ; it unites tenderness with weakness — the pathos 
of the tragic with the wit of the comic poet, and is sea- 
soned with a shrewd and subtle knowledge of human 
nature. It is not even averse to the brilliant sophisms 
of a selfish and worldly philosophy. These are the prin- 
cipal features of the Euripidean drama, which distin- 
guish it from that of iEschylus and Sophocles. Sopho- 
cles, it has been said, represented men as they ought 
to be, Euripides as they really are. a The judgment 

a Arist. Poet. xxv. 



PROGRESS OF NATIONAL TASTE. 323 

which would prefer Euripides to iEschylus and Sopho- 
cles, may be a degenerate one, but it is clear that such 
is the usual progress of national literary taste, through 
its three phases of unreal mysticism, historic truth, and 
romantic fiction. The individual mind exhibits the 
same phenomena in the growth and unfolding of the 
imaginative powers, which are, of course, those culti- 
vated by poetry. The child delights first in the super- 
natural wonders of the fairy tale, next he descends 
from the beings of another world, and takes an in- 
terest in the heroes and kings and princes, as recorded 
in biography and history ; and it requires time before 
he can take interest in the love scenes and every-day 
occurrences of a novel. 

The birth of Euripides took place in troubled but 
glorious times. When the Persian invasion threat- 
ened Greece, Themistocles advised his countrymen to 
leave their native city, and to trust to their fleet for 
protection. 3 Amongst the exiles the parents of Euri- 
pides, Mnesarchus and Clito, left their home in At- 
tica and fled to Salamis. They had previously, accord- 
ing to Suidas, b migrated from Boeotia. The bitter 
satire of Aristophanes, who hated the degenerate 
taste and false philosophy of Euripides, accused his 
mother of being an herb-woman of bad character, but 
there is no foundation for this slander. Oil the con- 
trary, the probability is that his parents were persons 
of rank and consideration. He is said to have been 
born on the same day on which the battle of Salamis 

a Herod, vii. 143. b Suidas, s. v. c Aves, Eq. 19, et passim, 

y2 



324 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

was fought. If so, a remarkable coincidence links 
together the three great poets, for iEschylus, as has 
been stated, a warrior in the prime of life, distin- 
guished himself on that glorious day, and Sophocles, 
then a youth of great personal beauty, took part in 
the public rejoicings with which the victory was 
celebrated. 

In early life he was a painter, and received a com- 
plete philosophical education. Prodicus instructed 
him in rhetoric, Socrates in morals, and Anaxagoras 
in physics. To this he owed the acuteness of his 
mind, and the pleasure which he took in indulging 
his taste for subtle disputation. Although he did not 
gain a prize until B.C. 441, he is said to have devoted 
himself to tragic poetry at a very early age, and to 
have exhibited the " Peliades,"N in his own name, when 
he was twenty-five years old. a 

Few men have suffered more from slander than 
Euripides. He was of an austere and ascetic temper, 
and this may have rendered him unpopular with the 
light-hearted and social Athenians ; and his attach- 
ment to the new philosophy and the modern system 
of education, which Aristophanes attacked with all his 
bitterness, and never failed to bring on all occasions 
before the public notice, exposed him to hatred and 
suspicion. We know that party spirit was very vio- 
lent against him. His belief in the physical system 
of Anaxagoras, and his consequent rejection of the 
mythological absurdities of the popular creed, would 

a Vit. anon. 



HIS POLITICAL SENTIMENTS. 325 

render him, like his great master Socrates, liable to 
the vague but easy accusation of impiety. 

His political sentiments were likewise unacceptable 
to the Athenian populace, who were, in fact, the 
judges of a dramatic poet's capacity, and no sin was 
visited by them so severely as opposition to the will of 
the sovereign people. His well-known sentiment, — 

'H yXwaa d/xw/io^', f] ce (f>prjv dvu)fXOTOQ, 
" My tongue has sworn, but my mind is unsworn/' a 

which he may have derived from the sophistical rhe- 
toric of Prodicus, subjected him to a public prose- 
cution. The effect of this unpopularity continued 
during after ages, and Athenseus unjustly stigmatizes 
him as a man of grossly immoral character. The im- 
putation of his having been an implacable hater of the 
female sex, has also no foundation to rest upon, ex- 
cept the fact, that he attributes so many terrible conse- 
quences to the uncontrolled violence of female passion. 
His enemies have forgotten and lost sight of the 
devoted affection of his Antigone and Alcestis, 
and have pointed to the fearful terms in which he so 
often depicts female depravity. Unfortunately, the 
legendary field which furnished subjects for Greek 
tragedy, was too fruitful in examples of blood-thirsty 
and profligate females. Perhaps he need not have 
selected instances of female rather than of male immo- 
rality ; but it must be remembered, that it was new to 
the Greek drama to make love the point on which the 
a Hippol. 608 ; Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. 



326 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

interest turned, and, therefore, his attention was di- 
rected, more than that of his predecessors, to study 
the different phases, either bad or good, of female 
character. 

So many inconsistencies occur in the accounts given 
of his marriages, the infidelities and consequent di- 
vorces of his wives, that no dependence can be placed 
upon them. The common story is, that he first 
married Choerilla, who bore him three sons ; that, on 
her proving unfaithful, he divorced her, and married 
Melitto, in which connexion he was equally unfortunate. 

Party feeling drove Euripides (b.c. 408), as it had 
already driven JEschylus, from Athens, and he sought 
an asylum at the court of Archelaus King of Mace- 
don, who treated him with the greatest kindness and 
respect. 

He escaped public odium only to fall a victim to 
private jealousy. In Macedonia he provoked the envy 
of two poets, Arrhidseus and Crateuas, and they let 
loose upon him some savage hounds belonging to 
the king, who tore him to pieces, at the advanced 
age of seventy-five, 3 in the year of the disastrous 
battle of ArginusEe. Another account deals out to 
him poetical retribution, as a woman-hater, and asserts 
that he was torn to pieces by women. Archelaus 
caused him to be buried at Pella. The number of 
his dramas is said by some to have been seventy-five, 
by others ninety-two. 

The following elegant epigram to his memory, by 
* b.c. 405, Olym. xciii., 3. 



HIS AGE A PHILOSOPHICAL ONE. 327 

an anonymous author, is preserved in the "Antho- 
logy," a and it has been imitated by Ben Jonson, on 
Drayton's tomb in Westminster Abbey. 

Ov abv fivrifia. roc' Ear, HLvpnridr), d\\a ov rov£e, 
TtJ ay yap (toty fiviijua Toff dfnre^ETai. 

" Divine Euripides, this tomb we see 
So fair, is not a monument for thee, 
So much as thou for it j since all will own, 
Thy name and lasting praise adorn the stone." 

Such was the life of one who, although during the 
greater part of his career the contemporary of Sopho- 
cles, belongs, as has already been partially shown, to 
a new generation, and represents a new phase of the 
Athenian mind. The age in which he flourished was 
one of philosophy rather than of poetry. The warmth 
of genius was now succeeded by the cold calculations 
and ingenious subtleties of speculative criticism, and 
Euripides, whether his was a master mind which led the 
public taste, or his plays merely an indication of what 
was the state of the Athenian mind, evidently delighted 
in the nice distinctions of a sophistical philosophy, 
in brilliant and sharp antitheses, startling paradoxes, 
hair-splitting arguments, a dexterous use of language, 
like that of the Athenian law courts, and an affecta- 
tion of pedantic ornament which Aristophanes con- 
siders as characteristic of his style. b 

An amusing instance of Euripides' love for specu- 
lative philosophy, is found in the " Menalippe." Mena- 
lippe bore two children to Neptune, and hid them in a 

a Anthol. vii. 46. b lio/j.\pevpnrucuie, Aristoph. Equit. 18. 



328 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

cow-house. Her father discovered them, and ordered 
them to be burnt as monsters. She accordingly 
argues, according to the physical principles of Anax- 
agoras, that they might be natural, and thus pleads 
for their preservation. 

The philosophical innovations which he introduced, 
however objectionable, prove him at any rate to have 
been a man of independent thought and fearless cou- 
rage. It is said, that, on one occasion, the audience 
clamorously demanded that a sentiment, in the play 
which they were witnessing, should be expunged, but 
the poet came forward, and boldly told them that it 
was his duty to teach them, not theirs to teach him. 
Foreigners could appreciate the sweetness of his poetry, 
to which his own countrymen were at times insen- 
sible, for the suffering relics of Nicias' army in Sicily 
were released from their bondage, because they recited 
some verses from his tragedies. 

Genius invests its heroes in the brightest colours ; 
it delights to paint them of heroic mould, and to 
measure them by a higher moral standard than that of 
ordinary human nature. It forms to itself a chivalrous 
ideal of characters belonging to historical or mythical 
ages. Their passions find feelings, though called by 
the same names, are nobler and more sublime, than 
those which agitate the breasts of those with whom we 
are in daily intercourse. The philosopher sees that 
this view is an untruthful one, and therefore curbs his 
genius and confines himself to the result of his obser- 
vation and experience. This is the reason for the 



EURIPIDES TRUE TO NATURE. 329 

common-place, unromantic view which Euripides takes 
of human nature. He does not transport himself 
into the world of ideal heroism, but brings down 
gods and heroes to a level with Athenian citizens, 
with the very auditory which fills the theatre, and 
witnesses the dramas which he represents. 

In the tragedies of Euripides, there is more truth 
and less poetry. They probably present a fair and 
just picture of Athenian life and manners and modes 
of thinking. He did not transgress the custom of 
deriving his plots from the usual heroic and mythical 
sources, but his heroes were no longer the same, 
except in name, with those of Homer and iEschylus 
and Sophocles ; they argued, disputed, conversed, 
like Athenian citizens, who had received their theo- 
retical education in the schools of the philosophers, 
and their practical training in the law courts and the 
ecclesia. His dramas were unnatural, inasmuch as 
they did violence to the traditional belief, with which 
the Athenian mind was imbued, and represented 
characters, with which they had been familiar from 
time immemorial, in a different moral garb to that 
which they had hitherto worn. They were natural, 
inasmuch as they represented men and women, such 
as were met with in the intercourse of daily life, in 
the places of public resort in Athens. 

The low moral position which woman so often 
occupies in the Euripidean tragedy; the proverbial 
sayings respecting the frailty of the sex ; the terrible 
crimes which he paints, as resulting from lawless love, 



330 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

are consistent with the state of Athenian society ; 
they are indications of woman's social position. The 
seclusion in which Athenian women of character 
lived, narrowed their minds ; the domestic duties, 
which alone were supposed to belong to them, ren- 
dered a refined education unnecessary. When we 
find Demosthenes describing the only object of mar- 
riage, as being "to have legitimate children, and a 
trustworthy guardian of one's property," we see at 
once, that an Athenian did not look upon a wife as a 
companion. A virtuous woman was almost secluded 
from the occupations and amusements of Athenian 
life. Those with whom men associated, were of loose 
morals, violent passions, shrewd intellect, and elegant 
accomplishments. They were such as Euripides so 
often describes. His audience were almost entirely 
men, and therefore they would not only recognise the 
truth of the picture, but also their vanity would be 
gratified, by the superiority ascribed by the poet to 
their own sex. 

No one observed these two leading characteristics 
of Euripides more keenly than Aristophanes. He 
saw in him the representative and supporter of the 
new and now fashionable system of education, which 
attributed the highest possible importance to the skil- 
ful use of words ; the patron of a loose morality, the 
introducer of an artificial and affected rhetoric, ini- 
mical to the true principles of pathos and tragic effect. 
He saw that he lowered the dignity of tragic subjects ; 
that he depressed gods and heroes to the level of 



CRITICISM OF ARISTOTLE. 331 

men, and even made them beggars, and garbed them 
in all the outward attire of poverty, of " looped and 
windowed raggedness," in order to excite sympathy. 

Is there then any truth in the criticism of Aristotle, 
that Euripides is the most tragic of poets ? Schlegel a 
has reconciled this opinion with the many defects of 
Euripides, and his manifest inferiority in so many points 
to jEschylus and Sophocles, , by supposing that Aris- 
totle alluded to the fact of all his dramas ending un- 
happily. This may have been one element in his 
criticism, but not the whole. Doubtless, if. in his 
conception of heroic characters, Euripides presented 
a true picture of Athenian every-day life, seasoned 
with that polished wit which Greek critics termed 
ccj-sioTzg, he deserves the epithet of comic rather than 
tragic ; but still he has great power over the feelings. 
His softness charms, although he is deficient in moral 
earnestness and severe grandeur. We are more ready 
to sympathise with his characters, even from the very 
fact of their being on a level with ourselves. 

With regard to the structure of the Euripidean tra- 
gedy, Aristophanes and other succeeding critics have 
found fault with the prologue. The feature, although 
not unusual, was not an essential portion of the Athe- 
nian drama ; in fact JEschylus has prefixed prologues 
to but few of his plays, Sophocles to none. Euripides, 
on the other hand, has made use of prologues in all 
cases, and evidently piqued himself on his skill in 
their composition. The principal objection brought 

■ Lect. v. 



332 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

against the Euripidean prologue is, that it not only 
made the audience acquainted with all that it was ne- 
cessary for them to know previous to the time when 
the action is supposed to commence, but also antici- 
pated the events, and, therefore, the interest of the 
play. This was, doubtless, in some instances the case ; 
as for example, in the " Hecuba," the " Ton," and the 
" Troades." But it must be remembered, that, owing 
to the well-known sources from which tragic plots 
were derived, this was not so great an evil as we 
should imagine. An Athenian audience could witness 
with the greatest delight, the representation of a play, 
the plot of which was almost the same as those of 
many former tragedies, and which was founded on in- 
cidents with which they had been familiar from child- 
hood. In the same way (if it is allowable to compare 
small things with great), the unaltered representation 
of the well-known adventures of Punch, is always 
witnessed with delight by spectators who can anti- 
cipate every scene, and are well acquainted with every 
incident. 

From the mode in which Aristophanes attacks the 
prologues of Euripides in the " Frogs," this does not 
appear to have been the objection which struck his 
mind It is far more probable that the reasons which 
rendered them offensive to Athenian taste were, firstly, 
that it was an unartistic and clumsily contrived method 
of bringing about a denouement ; which ought, accord- 
ing to all the rules and precedents of classic art, to have 
been effected by the regular and natural action of the 



PROLOGUES OF EURIPIDES. 333 

play itself; and secondly, that the constant and uniform 
indulgence in this habit, struck the nice and discrimi- 
nating taste of an Athenian audience as stupid and 
monotonous ; — their fickle and volatile nature looked 
for variety and novelty of construction, as they could 
not expect much novelty of plot. This, as far as it can 
be understood, appears to be the point to which Aris- 
tophanes directs his sarcasm. — " Look," says iEschylus 
in his controversy with Euripides for the tragic throne, 
" I will destroy all your prologues with a bottle." a He 
then proceeds to show, by quotations, that all the 
wondrous adventures which each prologizer so garru- 
lously narrates are wound up by the loss of a bottle. 

For example, he commences w T ith the prologue to 
the " Archelaus," — 

" JSgyptus, as the legend tells, 
And fifty daughters, at the Argive coast, 
Arrived with plashing oars, and — lost a bottle !" 

The same deficiency in artistic skill led to his so 
frequently unravelling any complication in the plots, 
and extricating the characters from any involved 
situation, by the intervention of a deity. But the 
feeling with which Euripides contemplates the power 
of deity, differs totally from that of Sophocles and 
iEschylus. He neither invests them with that super- 
natural awfulness, nor bows in their presence with that 
solemn veneration which is so discernible in iEschylus, 
and even in Sophocles. The gods are to him evidently 
not objects of belief, but the machinery of the poet, 

a Ranae, 1165. 



334 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

a machinery of the most powerful kind, because 
venerated by the people. He deferred to the popular 
theology, although the philosophical system which he 
professed, whose aim was ingenious sophistry, did not 
stop short of entire scepticism. 

As in the plays of his two great predecessors, we 
can, in the Euripidean tragedy, trace his political bias, 
and discern occasions on which he made the senti- 
ments uttered by his characters the vehicle for 
political instruction. Bitter as was the hatred of 
Aristophanes towards Euripides, as the introducer 
of a new and degenerate taste in poetry, and the 
supporter of the modern superficial and sophistical 
system of education, in one point at least they were 
entirely agreed. 

They both equally hated a demagogue, and saw 
the evils resulting to their country, from the pernicious 
influence of this class of men. They are attacked in 
the " Hecuba," under the person of Ulysses, and in 
the " Orestes," still more openly. He was a friend to 
the agricultural a rather than to the commercial in- 
terest, which he now saw was becoming too power- 
ful. He attacked, in no measured terms, the maritime 
class, b which, although originally the source of freedom 
and wealth and national glory, had now become the 
promoter of anarchy and insubordination. But though 
he saw the destructive tendency of ochlocratic in- 
fluence, he was a friend to true liberty, and diametri- 
cally opposed to oligarchal principles : in the " Andro- 
a Electra, 390. b Hecuba, 610. 



HIS POLITICAL SENTIMENTS. 335 

mache," for example, he controverts the principles of 
the Lacedaemonian constitution, and his hostility to 
the Dorians, and their political system is openly dis- 
played in the " Heraclidse," the whole object of which 
is political. He was, in fact, a moderate man, who 
saw that safety and good order were inconsistent with 
either extreme ; that neither demagogues, like Cleon 
and their followers on the one hand, nor rich pro- 
fligates like Alcibiades on the other, were likely to 
maintain inviolate their national institutions. He 
considered, that in the prosperity of the middle classes 
was bound up the welfare of a community. Of his 
fondness for what is popularly termed " special plead- 
ing," and for introducing into the theatre the lan- 
guage of the law courts, little need be said, every play 
is full of examples of this litigious disputation. It is 
sufficient to mention the scenes between Admetus and 
his father, in the " Alcestis," between Hecuba and 
Ulysses, between Orestes and Tyndarus, and between 
Peleus and Menelaus, in the " Andromache." From 
a poet, whose great art was the exciting the softer 
emotions, whose plays are, strictly speaking, plays of 
the passions, we should naturally expect softness and 
beauty in his lyrical poetry. Nor is the reader dis- 
appointed ; for his choral odes and lyric pieces are 
the most tender, and at the same time, the sweetest 
of his compositions ; and his monodies, or solo passages 
recited by the principal dramatis personce, are un- 
rivalled. In his day, the chorus had evidently lost the 
high and dignified position in tragedy, which it had 



336 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

formerly enjoyed. The odes are fewer, the subjects of 
the choral songs less connected with the dramatic 
action. Many more lyric pieces were recited by the per- 
sons of the drama than was usual in the older tragedies. 
One cannot help thinking, that the chorus now began 
to be employed, rather in deference to prejudice and 
established custom, than as an essential part of the 
tragedy. Beautiful as the choruses of Euripides un- 
doubtedly are, many of them might be omitted with- 
out detriment, which never could be the case with 
those of the two other tragic poets. 

The following is a list of the extant dramas of Euri- 
pides, with the dates of their representations : — 

B.C. 

Alcestis -438 

Medea 431 

Hippolytus 428 

Hecuba 423 

Heraclidse 421? 

Supplices 

Ion 

Hercules Furens ...... ) Uncertain. 

Andromache 

Iphigenia at Tauris.. 

Troades 415 

Electra (about) 415 

Helena s 

Iphigenia at Aulis ... 

Bacchse \ Uncertain. 

Phoenissse 

Cyclops (Satiric) 

Orestes 408 

The first of these, the " Alcestis," is a melodrama, as 



ELECTRA OF EURIPIDES. 337 

the comic scenes which it contains disqualify it for the 
appellation of a tragedy ; and notwithstanding its tragic 
subject it is said to have been exhibited in the place of 
the usual satiric drama at the conclusion of a tragic 
trilogy. 

Above all the other plays, the " Medea " contains 
the true elements of tragedy. The contest between 
parental aifection and the pangs of jealousy which agi- 
tates the heart of Medea, is inferior to nothing in 
JEschylus and Sophocles. Nor is the " Hecuba" much 
inferior in pathetic power. How tenderly and touch- 
ingly depicted is the resignation of Polyxena — how 
deep the affliction of the bereaved mother — how ter- 
rible the resolution with which she rises superior to 
her overwhelming sorrows, and lays her plans for the 
gratification of her vengeance ! 

In the " Electra," however, we most clearly dis- 
cover the inferiority of Euripides. Each of the three 
tragic poets has selected the same subject, and, there- 
fore, the methods in which they have treated it may 
thus be subjected to a strict comparison. In these 
tragedies the leading features of the authors are 
strikingly illustrated. 

In the " Choephori " terror is the chief character- 
istic ; in the " Electra " of Sophocles, tenderness ; in 
that of Euripides, homeliness. 

The " Cyclops " is a most interesting and important 
relic^of antiquity, for in it we have the only example 
of the satiric drama which has been handed down to 
modern times. Inferior as Euripides is to iEschylus 

vol. i. z 



338 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and Sophocles in art and taste, he has, in this case, 
been happy in the choice of a subject singularly suit- 
able to the purpose, and has adorned it with all the 
graces of elegant simplicity. The language and 
thought, which might have been thought too homely 
for tragedy, are here not out of place, amidst rural 
occupations and the scenes of pastoral life. The pas- 
sage, of which the following is a translation, is a pleas- 
ing specimen of the poetry which adorned the ancient 
satiric drama: — 

In yon trench, by yonder cave, 
Slake your thirst, your fleeces lave ; 
Or if ye must wander still, 
Seek at least the dewy hill : 
Must a pebble bring you back, 
Flung across your wilful track ; . 
Hie thee, horned one, back again 
To the shepherd Cyclops' den ; 
See, the porter stands before 
His rustic master's rocky door : 
Mothers, hear your sucklings bleating, 
For their evening meal entreating ; 
Penned, the livelong day they lie, 
Now give them food and lullaby. 
Will ye never, never, learn 
From the grassy mead to turn ; 
Never rest, when day grows dim, 
In iEtna's grot, each weary limb. 

Cyclops, 41 (Anstice). 

The beautiful choruses, of which the following pas- 
sages form part, have always been admired by scholars, 
and are well calculated to exemplify the lyrical power 
of Euripides. 



PASSAGES FROM EURIPIDES. 339 

The fatal hour was midnight's calm, 

When the feast was done, and sleep like balm 

Was shed on every eye. 
Hush'd was the choral symphony, 

The sacrifice was o'er, 
My lord to rest his limbs had flung, 
His idle spear in its place was hung, 

He dreamed of foes no more. 
And I, while I lost my lifeless gaze, 
In the depth of the golden mirror's blaze ; 

That my last light task was aiding, 
Was wreathing with fillets my tresses' maze, 

And with playful fingers braiding. 
Then came a shout ; 

Through the noiseless city the cry rang out, 
" Your homes are won, if ye scale the tower, 
Sons of the Greeks ! is it not the hour ? 

Hec. 8S6 (Axstice). 

We will not look on her burial sod, 

As the cell of sepulchral sleep : 
It shall be as the shrine of a radiant God, 
And the pilgrim shall visit that blest abode, 

To worship, and not to weep. 
And as he turns his steps aside, 

Thus shall he breathe his vow, — 
Here slept a self-devoted bride 
Of old, to save her lord she died, 

She is a spirit now. Ale. 1010 (Anstice). 

The most celebrated contemporaries and competi- 
tors of JEschylus. Sophocles, and Euripides, were Ion, 
Achseus, and Agathon. 

Ion. 

Ion was a native of Chios, who at an early age 
became a resident at Athens. He possessed great 
versatility of talent, for, besides tragedies, he wrote 

z2 



340 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

a history in the Ionic dialect, several lyric, elegiac, 
and dithyrambic poems, and forty fables. After the 
death of iEschylus, he became a competitor for the 
prize of tragedy, and was once successful. The titles 
of some of his tragedies, together with a few frag- 
ments of considerable beauty, are still extant. He 
is said a to have been surnamed "The Eastern Star," 
because he died whilst writing an ode which began 
with these words. The beauty and excellence of his 
poetry consisted rather in the absence of faults than 
the presence of sublime ideas. Longinus says that he 
wrote with polish, correctness, and graceful ornament, 
but without the fire and enthusiasm of Sophocles. 
" No one," b he asserts, " would hesitate to prefer the 
' (Edipus Tyrannus ' to all that Ion has ever written." 
He was one of the five canonical tragic poets of the 
Alexandrian grammarians. 

Acileus. 

Achseus was born at Eretria, B.C. 484. Although 
he exhibited many tragedies, he only once gained the 
prize. His principal merit seems to have been as an 
author of satiric dramas. Some fragments, as well as 
seventeen titles of his tragedies, are still preserved. 
He was also admitted into the Alexandrian canon. 

Agathon. 

Agathon was a rich Athenian, of good family and 
handsome person. His accomplishments, cheerfulness, 

a Vide Pearce's Longinus. b Longinus, xxxiii. 



AGATHON, A FRIEND OF EURIPIDES. 341 

and conversational powers, caused him to move in the 
fashionable literary society of the day. The " Sympo- 
sium" of Plato is represented as having been given 
at his house, on the occasion of his gaining the prize 
for the first time in the dramatic contest. The date 
of this victory is B.C. 416, in which year the poet was 
about thirty years of age. A congenial taste, both in 
philosophy and poetry, united him in friendship with 
Euripides, for, like him, he delighted in the ingenuity 
of the sophistical philosophy. The foppery and effe- 
minacy in which his personal beauty tempted him to 
indulge, appears to have affected his poetry, for al- 
though his style is celebrated for exquisite polish and 
softness, 3 it is disfigured by affectation. 5 The intro- 
duction of choral odes not intimately connected with 
the subject of the tragedy, has already been noticed 
in the case of Euripides. This was carried to so great 
an extent by Agathon, that Aristotle attributes to 
him this alteration in the structure of the tragic 
drama. The most celebrated of his works bore the 
title of "AvQoc, the ; ' Flower." but the titles of onlv 
four of his tragedies are extant. 

After the deaths of the three great tragic poets, a 
taste and talent for poetry continued hereditary in 
their families ; but it is clear that their descendants. 
although they wrote and exhibited tragedies for a few 
generations, were only poets by profession, and not 
from the enthusiasm of inspiration. Nothing which they 
produced has stood the test of time, although whilst 

a Plat. Symp. : Aristoph. Thesm. v. 190. c Poet, xviii. 12. 



342 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

they lived they enjoyed some reputation and gained 
some distinctions. Euphorion, the son of iEschylus, 
was a successful competitor against Sophocles and Eu- 
ripides, lophon, the son of Sophocles, and Sophocles 
the younger, his grandson, were considered worthy 
of obtaining the tragic wreath. A nephew of Euri- 
pides, who bore the same name as his illustrious rela- 
tive, is also mentioned as a tragic poet. 

Chseremon, 3 who lived B.C. 380, possessed some ex- 
cellencies, but his tragedies had more of the epic 
than the dramatic element in their composition. 

Theodectes, who exhibited about B.C. 356, was an 
orator and a philosopher by inclination, a tragic poet 
by profession ; and his tragedies, as well as those of 
his contemporaries, although they suited the corrupt 
taste of the times, were displays of rhetoric rather 
than of poetry. 

a Arist. Poet. i. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THEATRES 343 



CHAPTER VI. 

situation and construction op the theatbe of dionysus. date 

of its building. — seats. — thymele. — stage. scenery partly 

architectural partly painted. curtain. logeion. the 

effect produced by the grouping. size of theatre. con- 
trivances to remedy the inconvenience of distance. — the 
theatre roofless, and therefore natural and artificial 

scenery was combined. the greeks lived in the open air. 

machinery. the eccyclema, and the occasions on which it 

was used. instrumental music. decorations of the orches- 
tra and thymele. purposes for which the theatre was 

used. — the four dionysia. liturgies and theoric fund. 

::ber and arrangement of tragic chorus. — costume. — 
distribution of parts amongst the actors. — greek tragedy 
not like modern opera. 

In order to understand the Greek drama and the 
method of its representation, it is necessary to describe 
the theatre itself, the means of producing stage effect, 
the arrangements of the scenery, the theatrical cos- 
tume, and the distribution of the parts among the 
actors. 

The knowledge which we at present possess on 
these subjects, is derived from the remains of theatres 
which have been discovered, from the internal evidence 
of the plays themselves, and from the descriptions 
of Vitruvius, which were doubtless based upon the 



344 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

great stone theatre at Athens, situated near the tem- 
ple of Dionysus. 3 This theatre was begun 01. lxx. 1, 
B.C. 500, the year preceding that in which JE<schylus 
first exhibited tragedy. It was probably soon suffi- 
ciently completed to allow of dramatic representations 
taking place in it, but it was not entirely finished 
until about 01. 100, during the financial administra- 
tion of Lycurgus. 

The situation of the theatre of Dionysus was sur- 
passingly beautiful. The architect had taken advan- 
tage of a sloping ascent, which saved him the neces- 
sity of much expensive masonry, and the architectural 
effect was increased by the buildings of the Acropolis, 
which overlooked the whole. It commanded beau- 
tiful and extensive views of the surrounding country. 

Immediately opposite to the audience, and visible 
to all those who occupied the upper benches, was the 
stadium, a place of such absorbing interest to the 
Greek, and hence the numerous passages in the Attic 
drama, in which allusions are made to it and to its 
exciting contests, b as the visible presence of the arena 
in which the scenes described may be supposed to 
have occurred, added force and life to the illustration. 

The theatre was surrounded by an open arcade 
adorned with numerous statues. From this the 
benches descended like semicircular steps, intersected 
by staircases, to the orchestra, an open area bounded 
by the seats, the wall of the theatre, and the stage. 

a Miiller, Diss, on Eum. 
•» Choeph. 1011 ; Antig. 291 ; Med. 1151 ; Elect. 825, &c. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THEATRES. G45 

The lower sears were appropriated to those who had 
performed eminent public services, to the principal 
magistrates and members of the senate, or Sows,, and 
was, therefore, called the 3:w.z^-ixc',. 

The right of occupying these reserved seats was 
termed -::r :,:;.. and was highly esteemed. A separate 
part was also assign. i : : the young men. \Zr\ r A. and 
hence termed the \zr\,y.;,:* In the centre of the 
orchestra sto:d the -m m'm. an altar sacred to Dionysus. 
an 1 re symbolical of the religions object or the 

spectacle. It was the place on which the chorus stood 
when not performing its solemn dance and song, and 
the leader of the ebon: : his stand there when 

i:t_ in the hah:, re on the stage. 

aele was the central point of the whole 
building; the sacrifice, therefore, o there:! upon it re- 
presented the united adoration of all present as wor- 
shippers, converging to this point., as the chorus., which 
made it their centre of action, symbolized ideally the 
spectators themselves. 

The stage -aas on a level with the lowest range of 
.I therefore twelve feet above the orchestra: 
'.--- n: -f it which projected into the orchestra. was 
tr.e ' ■;;! .. s: called because the actors stood there 
whilst n ---htm,.. It was of wood, in order that its 
rever mat: n might assist the voice, whilst the other 
part of the stage (vgomptow) was of stone. A double 
flight of stairs led from the stage to the orchestra. 
The see: la w entirely awhite maral. Mas- 

1 Aristoph. Aves, 794 ; and SchoL 699. 



346 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

sive stone erections along the back and sides of the 
proscenium represented the columned front of a 
palace or temple with three entrances. From the 
centre or royal doorway (ficcciXsiov), the principal cha- 
racter in the play always made his entrance. The 
character next in importance made his appearance 
from the portal on the right, and the inferior persons 
of the drama came on the stage through the left 
entrance. There were also entrances (elcrohoi) on 
each side of the orchestra; that on the right was 
supposed to lead into the country, that on the left 
into the town. 

Besides these means of exit and entrance, there 
were concealed beneath the seats of the spectators 
the Stairs of Charon and the two anapiesmata, one 
of which was a trap-door in the orchestra, the other 
in the logeion. Through these the ghosts of the 
dead, and the other inhabitants of the lower world, 
appeared and disappeared. The scenic buildings ex- 
tended across the extreme breadth of the theatre, 
and screened the rooms and chambers necessary for 
the actors and machinery. 

The scenic buildings, assisted by certain mechanical 
contrivances to be described hereafter, were admirably 
suited to the representation of most tragedies, for 
the action generally took place in front of a palace, 
or, as, for example, in the " Eumenides " in the court 
of a temple, and therefore the scene in tragedy was 
rarely changed. This was more frequently necessary 
in comedy. In that case a curtain was drawn up 



THEATRICAL SCENERY. 347 

from below to screen the proscenium from the spec- 
tators, and, meanwhile, painted scenery of wood and 
canvas was arranged in front of the architectural 
erections. Such pains were taken to produce natural 
effects, that Gemelli imagines that even real trees 
were sometimes introduced for that purpose. 

It is plain that, although architectural scenery was in 
most cases suitable, there were some in which landscape 
painting was necessary. In the " Philoctetes " the scene 
represented the rocky caverns of a desert island, in 
the " Prometheus " the wild ravines of Caucasus. One 
scene of the " (Edipus Coloneus " is laid in a grove, 
one in the " Ajax Flagellifer" in an encampment. 

In the early period of the drama the curtain was 
probably only used when a change of scene was 
required. In all the plays extant of iEschylus and 
Sophocles, with the exception perhaps of the " (Edipus 
Tyrannus," the stage was empty at the commencement 
and the conclusion. But in many plays of Euripides 
a curtain must have been used at the commencement, 
because at the very opening, some of the characters 
must have been discovered grouped upon the stage. 

The narrowness of the logeion caused a picturesque 
effect, different from that to which we are accustomed 
in modern times. The modem idea of scenic repre- 
sentation is, that the deeper and more distant the 
perspective the greater the effect. But the beauty 
of perspective is one especial department in which 
the moderns have far surpassed the ancients, and the 
simple severity of Greek taste led them to value a 



348 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

mode of grouping which } as Schlegel says, resem- 
bles the clear order of basso relievo, rather than the 
more intricate and confused arrangement of a picture. 
Moreover depth of perspective, and breadth of 
light and shade, implies an advanced era of art, 
at which the ancients never arrived. The pictures 
of the earliest masters, however bright, clear, and 
well-defined, have not many distances. A compa- 
rison of the pictures which Raphael painted in his 
earlier style, with the masterpieces of his later years, 
exhibit advances in a knowledge of the principles of 
the picturesque in this respect, which he made in 
a few years, but which are generally the work of 
centuries. 

The theatres of the Greeks were of vast dimensions. 
As the performances took place only during a few 
days in the spring, they attracted to them not only 
the native population, but foreigners from all parts, 
to participate in the enjoyments of this religious 
festival. Day after day the same individuals crowded 
to the spectacle and filled the building, unwearied 
and delighted, from morning till the dusk of evening. 
Hence the theatre was constructed to contain these 
vast assemblies/ That at Athens is said to have 
contained no fewer than thirty thousand. But this is 
asserted by Cockerell, after personal examination and 
measurement, to be an exaggeration. The probability 
is, that it would have contained about half that 
number. 

a Plato, Symp. 



UNION OF FICTITIOUS AND REAL. 349 

The inconvenience of distance in so large a building 
was remedied by the cothurnus, or buskin., which gave 
additional height to the figure, and by the mask, 
which not only enlarged the features and rendered 
them visible in all parts of the theatre, but by the con- 
struction of the mouth on the principle of a speaking- 
trumpet, caused the voice to be distinctly heard. 
Besides this. gTeat attention was paid to the prin- 
ciples of acoustics, and Vitruvius informs us that 
reverberators for the voice were constructed in dif- 
ferent parts of the edifice. 

The theatre had no roof, no artificial lighting, the 
cheerful sky and transparent atmosphere of their 
sunny climate was over the heads of the spectators, 
and the position of the theatre was so chosen that 
the natural objects which surrounded them were visible 
from the benches, and enhanced the effect, and, as 
it were, formed a portion of the artificial scenery. 

There can be no doubt that the ancient dramatists 
took advantage of this union of the fictitious and 
the real, and combined them together, in order to 
assist the allusion. The Stairs of Charon, situated 
almost amongst the audience themselves, the entrances 
not on the stage, but in the walls of the theatre are 
proofs of it. Schlegel 3 remarks that, in the " Eume- 
nides," the spectators are twice addressed, as if they 
formed part of the dramatis personce, once by the 
Pythoness, as the Greeks assembled in front of the 
Delphic temple, and again by Pallas, as the Athenian 
1 Leer. iii. 



350 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

people in the court of the Areopagus, and on the 
same principle, in v. 658, the Acropolis is pointed 
out as really before the eyes of the spectators. The 
addresses to the spectators in all the Attic comedies 
are too numerous to mention. So when the powers 
of heaven, and the eternal source of light are ap- 
pealed to (as is so often the case, for example, in 
the " Antigone," vv. 802 and 879), the actor doubtless 
raised his hands and eyes to the real heaven, and 
apostrophized the rising or the setting sun. This 
practice of pressing Nature into the service of Art, 
has been blamed as destructive of illusion. Schlegel 
defends it on the following principle, that if a picture 
aims not only at being an imitation, but at producing 
illusion, the frame or edge must be concealed, and 
it must be viewed through an aperture. In dramatic 
scenery you cannot conceal the frame, and therefore it 
is better not to endeavour to hide it, but to trangress 
the strict rules of imitation, and permit this imperfect 
blending of reality with fiction. In some places of 
outdoor popular amusement in this country the scenic 
effect is produced in a similar manner, by the com- 
bination of paintings, arranged on the principles of 
perspective, with the natural landscape. 

This exposure to the open air was no inconvenience. 
In the early spring, when the principal performances 
took place at Athens, the sun's rays were not so 
powerful or the storms so frequent and violent as to 
interfere with the spectacle ; and in the rural festivals 
and the less important exhibitions in the city, the 



SCENE LAID IN OPEN AIR. 851 

audience were, in case of bad weather, forced to sub- 
mit to the disappointment of having their amusement 
stopped. In the case of a sudden storm the spectators 
sought shelter in the spacious arcades which sur- 
rounded the theatre. 

From the out-door nature of theatrical representa- 
tions, and the important use made of the natural 
scenery, the scene was always laid out of doors, and 
interiors, when necessary, were exhibited by mechanical 
contrivance. 

But this to the Greek did not appear unnatural. 
The Athenian was accustomed to out-door life. The 
softness of the climate enabled him to enjoy the open 
air, and the incommodious size of the generality of 
private dwellings, did not tempt him to forego this 
cheerful mode of existence. He gossipped and heard 
the news in the agora — he attended the lectures of the 
philosopher, if his taste led him in that direction, in 
some garden or grove or portico. The great national de- 
liberative body of which he was a member met in the 
Pnyx in the open air. Some of the courts, in which 
he served as a dicast, or juryman, were held in the 
open air also. When in the country he delighted in 
out-door occupations and amusements. Nothing seems 
to have annoyed or vexed him so much as the being 
cramped or confined. Hence the awning introduced 
by the Romans to screen them in the theatre from the 
sun and rain was not thought of by the Greeks, — in 
fact, they would not have considered it a luxury to be 
thus deprived of the fresh air and bright sunshine. 



352 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

To have represented the female characters as con- 
versing in public would have been inconsistent with 
the retired life led by the women of Ionian race. 
The stage, therefore, represented the court of the 
palace or temple, and had for its boundary the prin- 
cipal edifice. 

There was likewise ingenious and well contrived 
machinery calculated to aid the illusion, and to render 
the dramatic effect perfect. Machines and ropes, 
and suspended platforms, concealed by clouds for the 
descent and appearance of gods and heroes, and for 
the ascent of persons from earth to heaven ; a thunder 
chamber below the stage, and another above, from 
which flashed artificial lightning. 

The eccyclema was a contrivance peculiar to the 
Greek stage. It was a semicircular machine, repre- 
senting an interior, and when the great central doors 
of the scene were thrown open it was exposed to view, 
or, as some think, wheeled forward through the opening. 
The latter opinion is most probably the correct one, 
as it is most in accordance with the term ezzv^fjua, or 
k&crga, as it is sometimes called, and also with the 
verbs bt&vxkuv and efoxvxkuv, which describe the mode 
of using the machine. 

The following instances are cited by Miiller from 
the tragedies of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, 
in which the eccyclema was evidently employed. It 
may be observed, that they are all cases in which the 
action represented would take place within doors — 
they are all scenes in which deeds of bloodshed and 



USE OF THE ECCYCLEMA. 353 

murder have been committed., for the principles of 
correct taste forbade that such scenes should take 
place in the presence of the spectators. ■ When the 
eccyclema was made use of. the characters were ar- 
ranged as tableaux viva/is. so as to produce the best 
effects of picturesque grouping in sculpture and 
painting. 

JEsCHYLUS. 

1. In the " Agamemnon. " v. 1345, the eccyclema 

represented the apartment containing the bath, the 
murdered hero, and Clytemnestra, with the weapon 
in her hand reeking with blood. 

2. In the " Choephori,'' v. 967, the chamber as before. 
Orestes standing over the corpses of Clytemnestra and 
JE gist bus. 

Sophocles. 

3. In the ;i Electra." v. 1450.. a covered corpse is 
rolled upon the stage in an eccyclema. which _Egis 
thus supposes is Orestes. He unveils it. and behold 
it is Clytemnestra. 

4. In the " Antigone." v. 1293. the corpse of 
Eurydice is thus exhibited after her suicide. 

5. In the "Ajax," v. 346, the interior of the tent 
is thus thrown open to the view of the assembled 
people. 

6. In the "(Edipus Tyrannus/' v. 1297, the self- 
blinded monarch is thus shown for the first time after 
his terrible catastrophe. 

a Hor. An. I 
VOL. I. A A 



354 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Euripides. 

7. In the " Hercules Furens," v. 1030, Hercules is 
thus discovered bound to a pillar and surrounded by 
the dead bodies of his wife and children. 

8. In the " Hippolytus," v. 818, the doors of the 
palace are thrown open, and the corpse of Phaedra is 
seen after her suicide. 

There is every probability that as art improved and 
popular taste became less severe, instrumental music 
gradually became a more important element in the 
Greek theatre, and thus the orchestra came to be used 
not only for the choral dances, as the name implies, 
but for the musicians (auletse and citharoedi) who 
played the accompaniments. a The thymele, which 
stood in the centre, represented, as has been stated, 
the Dionysiac altar, round which the cyclic or dithy- 
rambic choruses performed their dances. As the 
chorus occupied the orchestra, and the leader (fiy't^M) 
the thymele, there can be no doubt that both were 
decorated as occasion required, so as to harmonize 
with the action of the play, and the decorations of the 
stage. 

In the " Choephori " and the " Persse," for example, 
it is the opinion of Gemelli that the thymele repre- 
sented in the one case the tomb of Agamemnon, in 
the other that of Darius. In the " Eumenides," 
Miiller b imagines that the orchestra represented the 

a See Suidas, and Etym. Mag. v. awy. 
b Miiller, Diss, on Eumen. 



SCENIC DECORATION. 

court in front of the temple, in which the central 
altar had on it the statues of Gaia. Themis, Phoebe, 
and Apollo. 

In the u Suppliants" the orchestra represented the 
place of public meeting in the city of Argos. and was 
adorned with the altars and statues of Zeus. Helios. 
Apollo. Poseidon, and Hermes, the Argive wy&uot, or 
: that is. the deities who presided over the 
place of meeting {dyoga), or the meeting itself («y«f). 

In the "'Agamemnon" the scene represented the 
palace of the Atridae. Along its front was ranged 
statues of gods, fronting the east (faifbojeg u&rfajtu) 
and fronting the main, or royal, entrance, the statue of 
the tutelary god Apollo. 'Ayvisug.* The orchestra 
was the Argive agora, in which stood, as in the 
" Choephori." the wydgeubt hi^. and on the thymele 
was placed a statue of Zeus, to which the chorus 
addresses its invocation in the srasimon. 

The theatre of Dionysus was not only used as a 
temple of the god, or as a place sacred to the Muses/ 
Advantage was also taken of its vast size, and of the 
multitudes assembled there, in order to confer public 
honours on distinguished citizens. 1 Sometimes, too. 
the storm of political excitement raged within its con- 
secrated precincts. In that terrible revolution which 
preceded only by a few years the complete downfall of 
the Athenian power/ an assembly was appointed to be 
held there in order to arrange matters for proclaiming 

1 Klausen. v. 1051. Sch'om. Ant. 

p. 264. a b.c. 411. 

A A _ 



356 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the authority of the Five Thousand; and it was only 
prevented by the panic at the tidings which arrived, 
informing them that the enemy were in sight off 
Salamis. 

Theatrical representations only took place at certain 
seasons of the year. As they were in honour of 
Dionysus they were only held at his festivals. The 
number of these (the Dionysia) in Attica are stated 
by some authorities to have been four, by others three.* 
In the latter case the Lensea and Anthesteria are 
reckoned as one and the same festival. That four is 
the correct number is now almost universally ad- 
mitted. 

The rural Dionysia, the oldest of them all, were 
celebrated throughout Attica as a vintage festival in 
the sixth month of the Attic year (Poseideon) which 
corresponded to December. This may appear late in 
the year, but it must be remembered that the rejoicing 
did not take place until all the labours of the vintage 
were entirely concluded, and the grapes had been mel- 
lowed by drying in the sun and air, in the same way in 
which they are prepared for the rich sweet wines of 
Hungary. 

The Lensea, or feast of the wine press ( Xqvog ), 
was celebrated in the seventh month (Gamelion). It 
was held at the temple of Dionysus in Limnae, a dis- 
trict formerly a marsh, situated on the south side of 
the theatre of Dionysus. The choice of such a situa- 
tion for Dionysiac temples appears to have been cus- 

a Museum Crit. ii. 75 ; Clinton, Fasti Hellenic!, ii. 332. 



DIONYSIAC FESTIVALS. 357 

tomary. That at Sparta stood, also, in a marshy loca- 
lity. 4 Probably the convenience of having water close 
at hand to mix with the wine, led to the selection, so 
that, as Athenaeus b expresses it, " the blood of the 
wine-god might mingle with the tears of the Naiads." 
This part of Athens was called the Lensea, because 
tradition assigned to that spot the erection of the first 
wine-press. 

The Anthesteria, which continued three days, derived 
its name from the month Anthesterion, in which it 
was held, the eighth month in the Attic calendar. The 
first day was called wiQoiyiu, the opening of the cask ; 
the second, %osc, on which the wine was tasted. On 
this day each of those present, and taking part in the 
festival, had a separate cup. This custom is said to 
have originated in the legend of Orestes, who, when he 
came to Athens, before he was purified from blood- 
guiltiness, was placed at a separate table, and no one 
would eat or drink with him. d The great Dionysia 
was celebrated at Athens, as the name implies (ra h 
dffrst), in the ninth Attic month (Elaphebolion). 

Dramatic representations took place at all of these 
festivals, but all new plays were performed in the 
capital, and consequently only at the great Dionysia. 
At the Anthesteria only comedies were exhibited, and 
rehearsals held in preparation for the great Dionysia. 
At the time of the great Dionysia, Athens was crowded 
with a vast concourse of strangers, as all representa- 

a Strabo, viii. 250. b Athen. p. 465. c Thuc. ii. 15. 

d Iphig. Taur. 947 ; Muller, Eum. § 50 ; Schol. Acharn. 960. 



358 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tives of the dependent states came at that season to 
Athens to pay their tribute. 3 

The Attic drama was a national affair, and formed a 
large item of the national expenditure. The splendour 
with which all festivals and public ceremonies, in- 
cluding theatrical exhibitions, were celebrated, caused 
the expense to be very considerable ; and of this, part 
was defrayed by the richer citizens, on whom the 
XsiTovgyiat devolved, and part by the treasury of the 
state. 

The accidents which were constantly occurring, 
owing to the crowds who took advantage of free admis- 
sion to the old wooden theatre, especially on one occa- 
sion when part of the scaffolding fell down, caused a 
small payment to be required. 5 This fee, which was 
two oboli, S^d. was afterwards, in consequence of a law 
passed by Pericles, given to the poorer citizens by the 
state on their application in the assembly. To such 
an amount did this grant at last arrive that Boech c 
reckons it at from twenty-five to thirty talents an- 
nually. 

So popular was the theoric fund that, although 
at length it exhausted all that was left in the treasury 
after providing for the civil expenditure, Eubulus, in 
order to court the favour of the populace, procured a 
law to be passed which rendered it capital to propose 
any other application of the fund. Demosthenes,* 1 by 
an ingenious evasion of this law, succeeded in getting 

a Aristoph. Ach. 477 ; Msoh. c. Ctes. b b.o. 500. 

c Pub. Econ. i. 241. d Olynth. i. 



NATURE OF DRAMATIC SPECTACLES ALTERED. 359 

it repealed at that critical period when all the re- 
sources of Athens were needed to repel the aggressions 
of Philip. But whilst the means of admission to the 
spectacle were thus furnished to all the poorer citizens 
from the public resources, taxation of another kind 
provided the means of representation. On all persons 
whose property exceeded three talents devolved the 
regular liturgies (lyzvxkiui Xzirovgyiai), one of which 
was to furnish, at his own expense, to the dramatic 
poet a chorus and actors. He had also to find a 
Xogohhdffzcckog to instruct the chorus, for the poet's 
post was only to teach the actors. 

It is evident that the progress of art had now en- 
tirely altered the nature of dramatic exhibitions con- 
sidered as solemn acts of religious worship. Originally 
the chorus was the whole population of some Dorian 
state celebrating the god with songs and accompanying 
dances on some high festival. Now the honour of the 
god was merged in the delight of the worshipper. The 
poet's skill was pressed into the service of religion, but 
it required paid professional talent to give effect to 
the outpourings of his imagination. Thus it was also 
in the public worship of the Christian church, the 
hymn of praise first burst forth in simple music, which 
all could execute — rudely, perhaps, but heartily — -in 
honour of God. Afterwards, as Christian art pro- 
gressed, the paid professional choir did that, as depu- 
ties, which the congregation did before, and the re- 
finements of music were purchased at the expense 
of the united adoration of the multitude. 



360 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

We are indebted to K. O. Muller, in his disserta- 
tions on the " Eumenides," for the most satisfactory 
theory respecting the number and arrangement of 
the tragic chorus ; and the system followed, out and 
illustrated by him in the tetralogy, to which the 
" Eumenides " belongs, is probably, with such slight 
modifications as might be necessary, the one pur- 
sued in all other tragedies. 

The number of the dithyrambic chorus, in which 
the tragic originated, was fifty, and that of the tragic 
chorus, furnished at the expense of the choragus, and 
granted by the state to the poet, was probably the 
same : this would supply forty-eight choreutse and two 
actors. Now an examination of the tragedies of 
iEschylus proves that he almost always introduces two 
choruses in each play, the one subordinate to the 
other in importance ; and there can be no doubt 
that the primary chorus in one play became the 
secondary chorus in another. 

In the "Agamemnon," the principal chorus repre- 
sents the supreme council, consisting of twelve old 
men ; and this number seems to have been the 
favourite one with iEschylus, as fifteen was with 
Sophocles, although he sometimes adopted twelve, as 
for instance, probably, in the " Antigone." The only 
case in which a chorus of fourteen appears to have 
been introduced, is in the " Suppliants " of Euripides. 
If, then, fifteen were allotted to the chorus, both in 
the " Choephori " and " Eumenides," eight would 
remain for the satiric drama. 



ARRANGEMENT OF CHORUS. 



361 



AGAMEM. 


CHOEPH. 




EUMENIDES. 


Old Men. 


Women. 


Furies. 
/Old men from 
Agamem. 


Women from 


Furies from 


Choephori. 


Eumenides. 




Women from 
Choeph. 



The arrangement in the trilogy, as proposed by 
Muller, is as follows : — 



Primary Chorus, 
Secondary, do. < 



The term lochus, applied by iEschylus to the chorus, 
proves that it was drawn up in rank (zaroi Zvyd) 
and file (zccrci ffrtxovg). The choreutse always marched 
three abreast, and either four or five deep, and entered 
by the door on the left of the audience. 

Of the odes which they recited, the first was called 
the parode, the others the stasima ; these were sung 
by the whole chorus, and the stasima served to form 
pauses in the action, and to divide the tragedy into 
acts, but there was no fixed number of acts as in 
later times. a The odes, which were sung partly by 
the actors and partly by the chorus, were called 
(Kopihoi) commi, because lamentations for the dead 
were frequently sung in that form. 

Of those parts which fell to the lot of the dramatis 
personce, the odes sung by them alone were called 
monodies : the first speech, the prologue ; the last, 
when not succeeded by a chorus, the exode ; and all 
between the choral odes were termed episodes. Such 
were the technical divisions both of the lyric and 
dramatic portions of Greek tragedy. 
a Hor. Art. Poet. 



362 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

An examination of the Greek tragedies will show 
that, as the drama advanced, the choral parts dimin- 
ished in length, and the dialogue became proportion- 
ally extended. 

The connexion of the drama with the Dionysiac 
festival, was maintained even in the costume of the 
actors. a Slightly modified, in order that it might not 
be discordant with the dramatic action, it was never- 
theless the gorgeous dress worn in the processions in 
honour of the god. Many coloured tunics (TroizlXai 
%irwveg) 9 girt round the waist with embroidered girdles 
((jbcurfcuXtG-Trjges), and mantles decorated with gold. To 
these were added the cothurnus and the mask, the 
illusion of which was heightened by an artificial head- 
dress. There was little difference in the male and 
female garb — except where the male chlamys was 
substituted for the female peplus. The male charac- 
ters frequently wore swords, otherwise the mask was 
the principal mark of distinction. 

Each character, however, was distinguished by 
some small but striking mark of difference. In the 
"Eumenides," for example, Orestes would bear the 
IzerfjgiOQ zXcchog, an olive branch bound round with 
woollen fillets ; b Pallas would be known by the aegis 
and helmet; Apollo would always be represented 
with a bow; and Hermes with his heraldic baton. 

This slight difference in costume was a convenient 
arrangement, as, from the number of actors employed, 
each in his time played many parts. The origin of 

a On this subject see Muller, Diss, on Eum. b Chc-eph. 1024. 



ARRANGEMENT OF ACTORS. 363 

the drama was, as has been stated, a simple recitation 
between the choral odes and dances. iEschylus first 
introduced dialogue, and therefore added a second 
actor. He who played the principal parts was termed 
9rg*rayoHOTTi£, the subordinate actor was entitled hv- 
ttgayovurnig. The improvements introduced subse- 
quently by Sophocles, included a third actor, rPirccyo- 
fHrrfc. JEschylus, as might be expected, took advantage 
of this innovation, and we find three actors in the 
" Prometheus," " Agamemnon," " Choephori," and 
•' Eumenides." The rule which forbade four actors, 
and which is alluded to by Horace in the line, 

w Nee quarta loqui persona laboret/'* 
was never at any time infringed. The following is 



Miiller's idea of the distribution of the parts in the 


Oresteian trile 


>gy. which may serve as a specimen 


of the usual practice. 




I. Agamemnon. 


1st Actor, 


Watchman. Herald. Agamemnon. 


2nd. 


Clytemnestra. 


3rd. 


Cassandra. iEgisthus. 




II. Choephoei. 


1st Actor. 


Orestes. 


2nd. 


Clytemnestra. Nurse (?). 


3rd. 


Electra. iEgisthus. Domestic. Pylades. 




III. Eoienides. 


1st Actor. 


Orestes. 


2nd. 


Pythoness. Clytemnestra. Minerva. 


3rd. 


Apollo. 



a Hor. Art. Poet, 192. 



364 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

It is obvious that great skill was requisite on the 
part of the poet, in order to arrange the several parts, 
so that more than one might be supported by the 
same actor. 

The resemblance which has sometimes been imagined 
to exist between Greek tragedy and modern opera, 
conveys an incorrect idea respecting the nature of 
the former. In the first place, the whole of the play, 
except the choral odes, was declaimed, and not sung 
in recitative ; and, secondly, in the opera, the music 
is the first consideration, whilst the libretto is con- 
fessedly subordinate. Hence an opera bears the name 
of the musical composer. But even in the Greek 
drama, the musical portion was under the direction 
of the poet, and its excellence assisted in enhancing 
his reputation. The poetical merit was the first thing 
considered, and any attempt on the part of the 
musician to invade this supremacy, was jealously 
watched and strictly controlled. 



LAW OF BLOOD-GUILT. 365 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE LAW OF BLOOD-GUILT. ITS EARLY ORIGIN. THE FORM IN 

WHICH IT WAS INCORPORATED INTO THE ATHENIAN CODE. MEN- 
TION OF IT IN THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY. VIEW IN WHICH 

IT WAS REGARDED BY TRAGIC POETS. CEREMONIES OF PURIFICA- 
TION. SOURCES FROM WHICH THE SUBJECTS OF GREEK TRAGEDY 

WERE DERIVED. REVERENCE FOR THEIR ANCIENT MONARCHS NOT 

INCONSISTENT WITH ATHENIAN LIBERTY. SOME PREVIOUS FAMI- 
LIARITY WITH THE PLOT CONSIDERED DESIRABLE. DISTANCE OF 

TIME PRETEXTED TRAGEDY FROM EXCITING THE FEELINGS TOO 
STRONGLY. — INSTRUCTION GIVEN ON MATTERS OF MODERN INTEREST 

THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF ANCIENT LEGEND. EXAMPLES FROM 

^SCHYLUS AND EURIPIDES. 

The law of blood-guilt is a subject of which it is 
necessary to make some brief mention, because it so 
completely pervades the Greek tragic drama, and 
exercises so great an influence on its tone of thought 
and feeling. 

To execute vengeance upon the murderer was 
recognised as a duty immediately devolving upon the 
relatives of the murdered man, amongst all natious, 
from the earliest times. " Whoso sheddeth man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed," a is one of the 
oldest revelations of God's will to man, and the ap- 
pointment of cities of refuge to which he should flee 
5 Gen. ix. 6. 



366 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

" who had killed his neighbour ignorantly .... lest 
the avenger of blood pursue the slayer, while his 
heart is hot," a shows that so strong was the feeling 
on this subject, that even the unintentional man- 
slayer required this protection. 

Even the public authority of the state could not 
relieve the kinsman from this duty, for if a man was 
guilty of wilful murder, the elders of the city were 
to " deliver him into the hand of the avenger of 
blood." b 

This duty of making the kinsman of the deceased 
the proper prosecutors, and every prosecution illegal, 
unless the prosecutors attested their relationship on 
oath, was incorporated into the Athenian code. c Nor 
could the kinsman evade this duty unless the dying 
man forgave his murderer. 

Cases of wilful murder were tried by the court of 
the Areopagus, those of manslaughter by the ephetse. 
When the murderer was convicted it was the duty 
of the state to carry the sentence into execution, and 
if he escaped by flight his exile was perpetual (efyvyev 
cteiQwyiav). In cases of manslaughter, the criminal 
fled his country, and it rested with the relatives of his 
victim to permit him to return after performing cere- 
monies of purification, and not till then did the duty 
of seeking vengeance cease. 

Passages in the "Iliad" and " Odyssey " d show 

a Deut. xix. 4. 6. b Ibid. xix. 12. 

c Demos, c. Mac. 1069. 

d See Od. ii. 278 ; 11. ix. 64, 632 ; xxiii. 88. 



LAW OF BLOOD-GUILT. 367 

that the law of custom, respecting murder and man- 
slaughter, in the heroic age, was equally severe, and 
that it rested with the relatives alone to determine 
the degree of guilt, and to assess the penalty to be 
exacted. The state did not interfere unless the pay- 
ment was refused. 3 Pollution clung to the person of 
the murderer until he was purified ; he must not dare 
to enter a consecrated place, or even a political assem- 
bly, and the avenger of blood was under the imme- 
diate protection of A polio. b 

The awful nature of blood-guiltiness, c and the 
sacred duty of vengeance as incumbent upon the 
nearest relatives, was maintained by the tragic poets, 
but more especially by iEschylus. In the " Choephori " 
and "Eumenides," Orestes is justified in his parricide; 
he will not repent of his deed, or admit his guilt, even 
before the Areopagus/ Clytemnestra was not only a 
murderess, but she had dared to profane holy things 
by offerings at her husband's tomb. 

Although the deed of Orestes is parricidal, no 
human power can take vengeance upon him, because 
he is the avenger of blood ; his mother's Furies can 
alone pursue him, and even they are powerless, when 
he has visited the shrine of Delphi as a suppliant for 
purification (KgoaTgoKutog), and received it at the hands 
of the god, and been made fit for intercourse with his 
fellow-men, and for communion in the offices of 
religion. 

a II. xviii. 499. •> Herod. 87 ; Eum. 625. 

c Choeph. 511. d Eumen. 566. 



368 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

With respect to the ceremonies themselves, they 
consisted of two kinds; gods and men were both to 
be appeased. Zeus would not pass over injustice, 
especially the violation of the laws of hospitality, or 
of the marriage tie. a Ate was the minister of divine 
vengeance, who pursued the guilty with a moral in- 
sanity, a judicial blindness, which led the victim 
unawares into a course inevitably ending in ruin and 
perdition ; hence the gods must be appeased by re- 
pentant prayers (Xtroci) and lustral waters (zaOugfjuot). 
But the manslayer could not participate in these 
rites, unless the man whom he had injured was 
appeased likewise. He must, therefore, perform 
sacrifices of atonement (iXacpot) to the dead, he 
must propitiate the favour not only of the powers 
below (x$ovioi Seoi '), but also the manes of the mur- 
dered man. 

A question naturally suggests itself, why Greek 
tragedy invariably sought for its subjects in the po- 
pular mythology. Many causes may have contributed 
to establish this rule. 

1. The drama was, as we have seen, invested with 
a sacred character; it was, perhaps, too solemn to 
be mixed up with matters of personal interest and 
e very-day life. Mythology was made up of those 
national traditions to which the Greeks looked back 
with a feeling of respect almost akin to religious 
veneration; — the families which supplied the largest 
number of tragic subjects, were those from which 
a Eumen. 204. 



MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS OF TRAGEDY. 3G9 

the patriarchs of their race descended. Mythology 
seemed to blend with religion. Its characters were 
of the heroic stamp and mould ; not so perfect as 
to remove them beyond the reach of human sym- 
pathies, but still approaching in their perfection to 
gods, or at least to demigods. The Greek mind 
was essentially inclined to hero-worship, and in the 
admiration excited by tragedy, this aspiration was 
gratified. As the period of mythology was one in 
which the imagination enjoyed full liberty, unre- 
strained by the fetters of historic truth, there was 
room for those supernatural incidents which elevate 
the hero above the ordinary race of mortal men, 
and, therefore, was especially suitable to the nature 
of tragedy. The spectacle of a noble nature struggling 
with an irresistible fate, — suffering, not from his own 
fault, but from a power which was too strong for 
mortal energies, a spectacle which, Seneca said, 
even gods might look on with pleasure, seemed 
more naturally to belong to a remote period, tinged 
with the bright and gorgeous colouring of poetry, 
than to the quiet simple daylight of the poet's own 
times. 

Nor did Athenian love of liberty, and attachment 
to democratic institutions, interfere with this reve- 
rence for the ancient monarchs of Greece, or prevent 
sympathy with their struggles and misfortunes. A 
noble and unselfish parental regard distinguishes those 
of royal race for whom the tragedians claim admira- 
tion ; they stand forth not as tyrants, but as chan> 

VOL. I. B B 



370 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

pions and defenders of their people against oppres- 
sion. If any one, like Creon, violates the universal 
law written in the human heart as the guide of life, 
retribution overtakes him, and he is held up as an 
object of detestation. 

2. It seems to have been a recognised principle 
in the Greek drama, that the spectators should be 
acquainted with the general features of the plot ; at 
least, that it should not be entirely unfamiliar to 
them. The Greeks do not appear to have thought 
that this anticipation of the interest diminished it 
in any way. Hence the popular knowledge of the 
national mythology, and the familiarity of the 
audience with the crimes and misfortunes of the 
Labdacidse and Pelopiclse, led the poet to select his 
materials from these sources, quite as much as the 
fact that they furnished him with the greatest number 
of subjects suitable for tragedy. 

3. Awful and terrible as the subjects in themselves 
were, they belonged to a period in which the audience 
had no immediate personal interest ; they could con- 
template them at such a distance, that their feelings 
of pity and terror were not harrowed or excited so 
violently, as to prevent them from enjoying the 
spectacle. The principles of Athenian taste, their 
excitable temperament, and warm sensibility were 
directly opposed to unnecessarily torturing the feel- 
ings. In common conversation they could not bear 
to speak of death, except in a euphemistic way. In 
tragedy itself, deeds of horror were never represented 



DIDACTIC NATURE OF TRAGEDY. 371 

on the stage. The object of tragedy was not to 
overwhelm with anguish, but to purify the passions/ 
They could not bear to witness even the imitation 
of sorrows which affected them too intimately. Of 
this we have direct proof. There are only two ex- 
ceptions to the rule now under consideration, one 
the " Persians " of JEschylus, the other, the " Taking 
of Miletus," by Phrynichus. It has already been 
stated that the verdict of the Athenian people on 
the latter of these tragedies, decreed that it was 
too painfully interesting. The disastrous events of 
their own days affected them so deeply, that they 
inflicted a fine on the poet, although they could 
not but confess the beauty and excellence of his 
production. 

It must not be supposed, however, that they neg- 
lected to take advantage of matters of present public 
interest. The nature of tragedy was too didactic, the 
tragic poet had too keen a sense of his high mission 
as a public instructor to deprive himself of this van- 
tage ground. Such instruction, not only moral, but 
political, as he thought the circumstances of the 
times required, found its way into the speeches of 
the characters or the songs of the chorus. The 
manners and sentiments were an important part of 
tragedy : according to Aristotle, it was by means of 
this that the persons of the drama became examples 
and models, and the office of moral instruction was 
■ Arist. Poet. 



372 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

always recognized as the especial province of the 
chorus. This duty Horace recognized, 

Ille bonis faveatque, et consilietur amicis ; 
Et regat iratos, et amet peccare timentes : 
Ille dapes laudet mensae brevis ; ille salubrem 
Justitiam legesque et apertis otia portis : 
Ille tegat commissa, deosque precetur et oret, 
Ut redeat miseris, abeat fortuna superbis. 

De Art. Poet. 196. 

The tragic poets gave their advice earnestly to 
their fellow-citizens on matters of modern interest, 
although it was through the medium of ancient tra- 
dition and heroic legend. 

Mythology supplied subjects peculiarly suited to 
the tragic drama, but, nevertheless, history and politics 
exercised an influence over their treatment and co- 
louring. It was, for example, fresh in the recol- 
lections of the Athenian audience, who witnessed the 
representation of the " Eumenides," that their formid- 
able enemies, the Persians, had encamped on the eastern 
slope of the Areopagus, and therefore on that spot 
iEschylus skilfully places the imaginary encampment 
of the Amazons. a 

No one can doubt that the politics of the day 
suggested to iEschylus the whole design of the " Eu- 
menides," that his wish was, as has been shown, to 
uphold the principles of the old aristocracy and the 
reverence due to old institutions ; b that he wished, 
also, to recommend an alliance with Argos, now the 
a Eumen. 655. b Ibid. 179, 639. 



OLD LEGEND ADAPTED TO MODERN POLITICS. 373 

leading democratical state in the Peloponnesus, and 
the bitter and irreconcilable enemy to Sparta, a and 
to advocate the right of Athens to that part of the 
Troad around Sigeum which they were then disputing 
with the Lesbians. 6 

This mode of conveying political instruction is also 
discernible in other tragedies. The same recommen- 
dation of a favourable feeling towards Argos is mani- 
fest in the " Suppliants," and as that play was exhibited 
about the time of the expedition into Egypt (01. lxxix. 
3), the corn-and-wine-fed Athenians are encouraged 
in it not to fear the Egyptians, whose food is papyrus, 
and whose drink is barley-wine, in the same ironical 
spirit in which Hogarth contrasts the roast beef of 
Old England with the frog-diet of France. 

But this adaptation of old legend to modern poli- 
tical purposes, is more visible in Euripides. He, 
being professedly a dramatic reformer, did not feel 
himself so fettered by the solemn dignity of mytho- 
logy, and made his heroes and even deities descend 
from their high estate, and converse like mere po- 
lished and educated and philosophical Athenians. 

In his tragedy of the " Suppliants," he, like iEschy- 
lus, recommended fraternization with Argos, whilst 
in the " Heraclidse," it is plain that the same people 
is regarded unfavourably. The welcome of Medea 
at Athens has been thought to advise symbolically an 
alliance with Corcyra. 

a Eumen. 734. b Ibid. 375. See Miiller, Eum. § 42. 



374 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Nor did lie refrain from holding up well-known 
characters to popular odium, if it be true, as has been 
supposed, that Ulysses, in the " Hecuba," represents 
the demagogue Cleon, and Paris, in the " Troades," 
the fascinating but profligate Alcibiades. 



A HISTORY 

OF 

CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

PART I. 

GREEK LITERATURE. 



BOOK II. {continued). 

SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DESCRIPTIVE ACCURACY AND GENERAL TRUTHFULNESS OP 

GREEK LITERATURE. IN ESTIMATING THIS, TWO CONSIDERATIONS 

NECESSARY 1, THE CHANGES WHICH HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE 

FACE OF THE COUNTRY, 2, LOVE FOR THE SOFTER BEAUTIES OF 

NATURE. WHY THE GREEKS DO NOT DESCRIBE LANDSCAPES. 

THE POETS DID NOT ACT DISINGENUOUSLY IN SELECTING PARTICU- 
LAR FEATURES FOR DESCRIPTION. PLACE WHICH THE SEA OCCU- 
PIES IN GREEK POETRY. WHENEVER TRUTH IS WANTED THE 

GREEK POETS ARE ALWAYS TRUTHFUL. INSTANCES OF HOMERIC 

ACCURACY. THIS ACCURACY MADE USE OF AS AN ARGUMENT 

AGAINST HOMER'S PERSONALITY. SUCH OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

SIMILAR ACCURACY IN £!SCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES, AND EURIPIDES. 

TRUTHFULNESS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF GREEK LITERATURE. 

IRONY. LITOTES. -ESCHYLUS. — ARISTOPHANES. 

It would be giving but an imperfect idea of Greek 
genius, if a few observations were not made on a most 

VOL. II. B 



2 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

striking feature in the writings of the Greek poets. 
That is, their descriptive accuracy and general truth- 
fulness. In forming an estimate of their descriptive 
accuracy, two considerations must be kept in view. 

Firstly, that although the general physical features 
of the country are unaltered, yet still changes have 
taken place, not only such as are due to political 
and social revolutions, but also to those effects which 
time invariably produces on the face of a country. 

Devastation spread over the land by barbarian foes 
— the degeneracy of the inhabitants themselves, and 
the consequent neglect of culture and improvement — 
the destruction of civilization and liberty for so many 
centuries, succeeded by ignorance and a condition 
little better than slavery — have combined to make 
modern Greece, as has been beautifully described, 
" the skeleton of ancient Greece, enveloped in a 
mantle of recollections." 8 

" 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more." 

The Nemean forest is an open and barren plain ; 
the green pastures of Cithseron have become a de- 
sert. The verdant turf which bordered the Ilissus has 
given place to a dry and dusty beach. The stream 
of the Cephisus is so scanty that it is left almost 
constantly dry. 

Secondly, that as descriptions of scenery were in- 
troduced by the poets for the purposes of embellish- 
ment, their patriotic enthusiasm led them to overlook 

a Ampere, p. 5. 






DESCRIPTIVE ACCURACY OF GREEK POETS. 3 

the defects, and see in their brightest colours all the 
beautiful features which distinguished their native 
land. Their euphemism, which, in the intercourse of 
social life, caused them to shrink from speaking of 
unpleasant subjects in such terms as could give offence 
to the most refined taste, pervaded the whole of their 
literature, and thus affected not only the moral but 
also the descriptive character of their poetry. Gene- 
rally speaking, the sublime and terrible scenes of 
nature had far less charms for them than the softer 
beauties. Rocks, mountains, precipices, awoke a series 
of painful images, only appropriate to emergencies 
in which such scenery was absolutely indispensable. 
The ravines of the inhospitable Caucasus were suitable 
to the tortures of Prometheus — the bare gray cliffs 
of Mycense to the Pelopid tragedies — the savage 
wildness of Cithseron to the unnatural exposure of 
(Edipus. The crystal rivulet, the soft and verdant 
turf, inviting repose — the shade of the broad plane- 
tree — were scenes in which their imagination took 
far more delight. Picturesque grandeur did not 
affect the Greek mind with pleasure, as it does the 
minds of those who inhabit the more northern parts 
of Europe, and who are accustomed to the sterner 
and severer beauties of nature, as they are to the 
rigours of more inhospitable climates. . Often does 
Homer, who w r ould devote a long description to some 
scene of genial beauty — who paints the sunny coasts 
of Ionia, the lovely kingdom of the Phseacians, the 
marvellous gardens of Alcinous, with all the varied 

B 2 



4 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tints of his luxuriant fancy — pass over, with the mere 
distinction of an epithet, scenes of rude and gloomy 
beauty. 

Perhaps it is for this reason that the Greek poets 
do not describe extensive general views, what the 
moderns term landscapes, but that their descriptive 
poetry deals in details. Greece was, in its general fea- 
tures, wild and mountainous. Its rock-bound coasts, 
although washed by the waters of the ever-varying 
sea, indented by many a beautiful creek and bay, and 
many a cheerful and populous harbour, teeming with 
activity and life, presented generally an escarped and 
rugged aspect. But embosomed in the recesses of 
these wilds were spots of excessive beauty, green oases, 
as it were, in the desert, which promised that personal 
and sensuous enjoyment which in so many instances 
appears connected with Greek ideas of beauty. 

Greek landscape, therefore, was necessarily of a 
severe character, — a more northern taste would have 
appreciated it, but it would not appeal to the sensibi- 
lities of an Ionian. The poet, therefore, who was the 
guide of national taste, as being the more perfect re- 
presentative of the national mind, would not think it 
inconsistent with faithfulness to pass this part over, 
and to devote his talents to those especial features 
which were calculated to call forth the sympathies of 
his hearers. 

To paint the loveliness, and pass over the rudeness 
of nature, might have been disingenuous in a geo- 
grapher, who professed as his sole object to describe 



CHIEF BEAUTY OF GREECE THE SEA. 

impartially the faults as well as the beauties of a 
country, but a poet was perfectly justified in selecting 
beauty, and passing over what he considered deformity, 
just as the kindred art of the sculptor endeavours to 
represent not the average of human nature, but the 
perfection of ideal beauty. 

This tendency of the Greek poets to seize on what- 
ever they considered as the beautiful is also exempli- 
fied in the large proportionate space which the sea 
occupies in their works, the delight with which they 
dwell upon all ideas connected with it. The chief 
beauty of Greece is its sea. Almost encircled and 
girdled by it as an island, Attica, as its ancient name 
implied, is all shore. From every high ground, from 
the principal parts of Athens itself, the sea is visible ; 
nor could any one look to sea-ward and not observe 
that bright and transparent atmosphere by which the 
climate is characterized. And not only by its natural 
beauties, but by the benefits which it conferred upon 
Greece, the sea appealed to the national sympathies. 
The inhabitant of the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor 
could not but remember that when his ancestors sailed 
across it from the west they brought with them those 
liberties and institutions which rendered him immea- 
surably superior /to his Oriental neighbours, and con- 
stituted the difference between Greek and Barbarian. 
He felt every day that the same waves wafted to him 
the wealth and civilization which were the means of 
maintaining that superiority. Although the scene of 
the " Iliad " is laid on shore, the passages in it which 



6 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

refer to the sea are numerous, and the adventures nar- 
rated in the " Odyssey " are almost exclusively ma- 
ritime. 

If we carry our thoughts onwards to later times ; to 
the glorious naval engagements between Greece and 
Persia ; to the time when Themistocles, fortified by the 
voice of the oracle, bade Greece look for protection to 
her wooden walls ; and, lastly, to the supremacy essen- 
tially naval which Athens maintained in the Pelopon- 
nesian war, we find that the sea was the source of 
national greatness, and must have reminded the Greek 
patriot, whenever he looked upon it, of the high des- 
tinies of his race. The love with which the Greek 
regarded the sea, the gratitude which he felt towards 
it as the source of his national greatness and prosperity, 
is represented by the numerous maritime descriptions 
and metaphors and illustrations which are used as 
ornaments in Greek poetry universally, and are espe- 
cially to be remarked in the writings of the tragic 
poets. 

Although, therefore, the views of the Greek poets 
in the descriptions which they gave of their country 
were perhaps onesided, they were not for that reason 
untrue. Their inaccuracy is due to the omissions of 
those who thought themselves at liberty to select such 
features as were best fitted to embellish and adorn the 
picture which they were representing. 

But whenever fidelity and accuracy are to be ex- 
pected, whenever truth is necessary to the consistency 
of the narrative, and geographical position and physical 



GEOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCURACY. 7 

description would illustrate the story, the ancient 
Greek poets do not fail. So accurate, for example, is 
Homer in this respect, that the internal evidence fur- 
nished by his geographical descriptions goes far, as has 
already been shown, to determine the country of which 
he was a native. Ample testimony has been borne to 
the fidelity of Homer's descriptions by geographers 
both of ancient and modern times. Strabo constantly 
appeals to his authority. Wood, in his " Essay on the 
Genius of Homer," shows the correspondence between 
Homer's descriptions, and the results of his own travels, 
and Colonel Leake finds in the Homeric poems a 
topographical guide which seldom fails in accuracy. 

The long and snow-capped ridge of Olympus 
strikes the traveller as deserving these epithets more 
than any of the neighbouring mountains. 3 Phthia, 
nourisher of men, forms in the present day the most 
fertile portion of Thessaly. In the fat Boeotia the har- 
vest is often plenteous when it fails in the rest of 
Greece ; and the plain of Thebes is especially famed 
for its fertility ; Scyros is, as Homer described it, the 
escarped ; Aulis, the rocky ; Lacedaemon, the hollow. 
The confessed beauty of the plain of Sparta still ren- 
ders it deserving of Homer's epithet of lovely. Both 
Dodonas have their severe winters ; Pyrasos its flowery 
meads ; Epidaurus its vineyards. The Cyclopean re- 
mains of Pelasgic architecture, which mark the sites 
of Tyrins and Mycenae, prove that these cities well 
deserved the Homeric epithet of well-built. 

a See Ampere. 



■* : 



8 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Even the apparent misrepresentations of Homer are 
capable of satisfactory explanation. In the " Iliad, 1 ' 
for example, he describes Neptune as seated on the 
island of Samothrace, surveying the plains of Troy. 
It might be supposed that he neglected the fact, that 
Imbros, by its position between these two localities, 
would intercept the view. But in reality, viewed 
from the Straits of the Dardanelles, the steep rocks of 
Samothrace are seen to elevate themselves far above 
the comparatively low lands of Imbros. Still, low as 
Imbros lies, its rocky coast is steep and escarped, and 
deserves the Homeric epithet TcwicaCkbiaau,, compared 
with the still more level shores of the neighbouring 
island Lesbos. 

It has been doubted, without any reason, whether the 
Ithaca of Homer was identical with the island which 
now bears that name. The testimony of eye-witnesses, 
Dodwell and Leake, proves that the description ex- 
actly agrees with the present appearance : the ports 
and approaches remind the traveller of the " Odyssey," 
and its mountains answer the Homeric description. 
There is but one single exception, and that one easily 
accounted for. The mountain slopes are no longer 
covered with the dark forests which concealed from 
view the herds of Eumseus. 

This remarkable and universal accuracy has been 
recognized, and made use of as an argument by the 
opposers of the personality of Homer. To describe 
places so numerous and so distant from each other 
with the fidelity of an eye-witness appears to them an 



TRUTHFULNESS OF THE TRAGEDIANS. 9 

utter impossibility. Rejecting any other explanation, 
they assume that as one man could not have visited 
all these places the descriptive passages must have 
been the work of several minds. 

But if the theory is adopted that the author of the 
Homeric poems had his mind deeply imbued with the 
traditions of his race, and his memory stored with the 
popular lays and legends in which these traditions 
were conveyed, a natural solution of the difficultv 
is at once furnished. In cases where Homer had 
not himself visited the scene described, each poet 
or each popular legend supplied the description, and 
the retentive memory and vivid imagination of the 
Ionian bard embodied them as occasion required in 
his own poems. 

Such is the truthfulness of the Homeric poetry. 
Similar exactness, also, characterizes the Attic poets, 
in that period, when the national poetic talent had 
arrived at its most perfect and mature develop- 
ment. 

Whoever reads the course of the Beacons in the 
" Agamemnon " of JEschylus, will appreciate the jus- 
tice of this assertion, and admire the minute ueosrra- 
phical accuracy with which it is described. The 
scenery in the neighbourhood of Athens, as depicted 
by Sophocles in the " (Edipus Coloneus," must have 
struck every one of the spectators as a living portrait 
of a locality with which they were familiar from 
infancy. The following testimony to its fidelity is 
borne bv a modern traveller : — 



10 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

" All the images in that exquisite chorus of So- 
phocles, where he dilates with rapture upon the beau- 
ties of his native place, may still be verified. The 
crocus, the narcissus, and a thousand flowers, still 
mingle their various dyes, and impregnate the atmo- 
sphere with odours. The descendants of those ancient 
olives, on which the eye of Morian Jupiter was fixed in 
vigilant care, still spread their broad arms, and form a 
shade impervious to the sun. In the opening of the 
year the whole grove is vocal with the melody of the 
nightingale, and at its close the purple clusters, the 
glory of Bacchus, hang around the trellis work with 
which the numerous cottages and villas are adorned." a 

It is scarcely too much to say, that a selection of 
descriptive passages from the Greek poets would form 
a guide-book to the topography of Greece. 

Strabo constantly bears witness to the descriptive 
accuracy of Sophocles and Euripides. He points out, 
as an example, a passage in which the latter con- 
trasts the principal features of Laconia and Messenia, 
" the first abounding in valleys, fenced in with steep 
mountains, and difficult of access to an invading 
enemy; the other fertile, watered by a thousand 
springs, adorned with verdant pastures, neither chilled 
by the rigorous blasts of winter, nor parched by the 
excessive heats of summer." b 

But faithfulness in description is a quality which 
might be expected from Greek love of truth, and 
hatred of exaggeration. Truthfulness is the essence 
a Hughes, Travels in Greece, vol. i. b Ampere, p. 21. 



TRUTHFULNESS IN PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY. 11 

of Greek literature in every period and in every age. 
Even in those departments of poetry, where fiction is 
essential, nothing would satisfy Greek taste but the 
closest resemblance to truth, the highest degree of 
verisimilitude. 

In their philosophical researches, although the mind 
had just escaped from the dominion of the imagina- 
tion, truth, so far as the human mind could reach it, 
was the object at which they aimed. The honesty 
with which they pursued this holy object, could not 
indeed curb the speculations of the Ionian Greeks, 
but still they recognized its authority and the moral 
duty of devoting their powers to its attainment. 

In history, although its great father eagerly re- 
ceived, with all the wonder-loving zeal of an Ionian, 
the marvels which he collected from various sources 
for the delight of his auditors, still he received them 
from authorities which he thought he had grounds 
for believing; and when he took his accounts upon 
trust, he rigidly observed the rule of stating the 
authority on which he depended. In philosophical his- 
tory, Thucydides elicited his political principles from 
the facts which he detailed with the most scrupulous 
regard to truth, and the most exact impartiality. 

Nothing was so offensive to Greek taste, nothing so 
vulgar in their estimation, as exaggeration. In argu- 
ment, there was nothing which more called forth their 
admiration than that art which they termed irony 
(s/gwugfa), which was the opposite to arrogance and 
love of show or parade, the dissembling the whole 



12 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

strength of argument which you could bring forward, 
the learning and the personal qualifications which 
you might happen to possess. 

In style, no figure was so common or so great a 
favourite as that which the grammarians called Li- 
totes, which understates everything rather than incur 
the risk of being suspected of going beyond the truth. 
It may be said that understatement is not absolute 
truthfulness ; this doubtless, strictly speaking, is the 
case; but, nevertheless, understatement indicates a 
delicate and sensitive regard to truthfulness, it is the 
tendency of a truthful mind, whereas exaggeration is 
the characteristic of a disposition which is the precise 
contrary. Where the mean is so difficult to hit, 
understatement, if a fault, is a fault in the right 
direction. 

With respect to the materials of which the poets 
made use, we may observe that the legends which 
form the foundation of all tragedy, are reproduced 
with the same exactness in their details by all the 
great dramatic poets in succession. The historic 
events to which allusions are occasionally made, are 
given with the fidelity of an historian, and national 
triumphs are not exaggerated even to that extent 
which might be thought a pardonable sacrifice to 
national vanity. The narrative of Herodotus, truthful 
although it is, appears far more romantic and won- 
derful than any part of iEschyW " Persae." The grave 
importance of the old aristocratic institutions and 
the high court of Areopagus, are not supported in 



EXAMPLES OF ^SCHYLUS AND ARISTOPHANES. 13 

his " Eumenides " in a spirit of partizanship, but with 
calm and dignified impartiality, worthy of one who 
would not sacrifice truth, although firmly persuaded 
of the righteousness of the cause which he espoused. 

Even the allowed licentiousness of comedy did not 
tempt Aristophanes to go beyond the truth in his sad 
descriptions of Athenian society. Not a picture which 
he draws of public moral degeneracy, of political cor- 
ruption, of unreformed abuses, of fashionable follies, 
of philosophical absurdity, of private vices, is not 
borne out by contemporary historical authority. 



14 . GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER IX. 

COMEDY, ITS ORIGIN. — ETYMOLOGY. — FIRST EXHIBITED IN ICARIA BY 
SUSARION. EPICHARMUS, HIS LIFE, AND CHARACTER OF HIS COME- 
DIES. PHORMIS. DINOLOCHTJS. ATTIC COMEDY, ITS THREEFOLD 

DIVISION. CHARACTER OF THE OLD COMEDY, AS TRACED IN THAT 

OF ARISTOPHANES. ITS REFINEMENT, ITS ELEGANCE, AND ITS 

GROSSNESS. ITS EFFECTS FOR GOOD AND FOR EVIL. ITS IMPAR- 
TIALITY. LAWS BY WHICH IT WAS PROHIBITED. — THE PARA- 
BASIS. 

The origin of the Greek comedy was similar to 
that of tragedy. As the latter was the development 
of the dithyrambic chorus, so the former grew out 
of the phallic songs. At the rural festivals, in which 
the country-loving Greeks took such intense delight, 
when the harvest or the vintage was over, a band 
of jovial revellers (zoupog) formed dances and pro- 
cessions, bearing aloft in triumphant merriment the 
emblem of fertility and increase ((puKkog), so pro- 
minent not only in Greek, but' also in Egyptian and 
Asiatic worship. Their leader sang such a song as 
that in the " Acharnians " of Aristophanes, a whilst the 
rest joined in a rude and boisterous chorus. In these 
rustic rejoicings is discernible the first gleam both 
of the dramatic and choral portions, and hence the 
custom of the song and the dance accompanying 
a Aristoph. Ach. 232. 



ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 15 

the reveller, and the etymology of the term comedy, 
the song or ode of the Comus. Comedy, Aristotle 
informs us, a was at first, like tragedy, entirely extem- 
pore; rude and biting jests, indecent and licentious 
songs, such as might be expected from the nature 
of the phallic ceremony, accompanied by gestures, 
like those of mountebanks or morrice-dancers, de- 
lighted the admiring crowd. This amusement first 
assumed a tangible form in Icaria, one of the demi 
of Attica, and the inhabitants of this district first 
incorporated it with the worship of Dionysus, which 
they are said to have introduced into Greece. 

We learn from a Chronicle preserved amongst the 
Marmora Oxoniensia, as filled up and interpreted by 
Ik'iitley, that Susarion a Megarean, who lived about the 
time of Solon, amused the Tcarians by carrying from 
place to place in carts his company of buffoons, whose 
faces, instead of being concealed by masks, were smeared 
with the lees of wine. Hence his actors were called 
rgvyaloi, or lee-singers, and comedy acquired the name 
of rgvyalU, or the lee-song. 

From his example Thespis, who lived soon after, 
conveyed in a similar way his itinerant tragic com- 
pany, like the strolling players who frequent our 
village fairs. To this custom Horace alludes in his 
" Epistle to the Pisos." 

" Ignotum tragicae genus invenisse camense 
Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse poemata Thespis." 

Still, however, comedy consisted only of extem- 

a Aristotle, Poet. iv. 



16 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

porary effusions ; and it was not until the time of Epi- 
charmus that it assumed a written form. He was the 
first, as Posidippus was the last, in a series of one hundred 
and four comic poets, who nourished during a period of 
two hundred and fifty years. Epicharmus was born in 
the island of Cos, about B.C. 540, and both his father 
and himself were physicians. 3 He resided some little 
time at Megara in Sicily, which was a colony from 
Megara on the Isthmus of Corinth, and the native 
country of Susarion. There he probably had an op- 
portunity of witnessing the comic performances of 
Susarion's company. He soon after became a resident 
at the court of Hiero. He studied philosophy under 
Pythagoras, and many traces of this training are to 
be found in the moral axioms, or gnomes, which 
abound in his writings, and the philosophical discus- 
sions which frequently give a serious complexion to 
the extant fragments of his comedies. 

If there be any truth in the assertion of Horace, 
that Plautus imitated him, b and to the tradition that 
he founded his " MenaBchmi " on a comedy of Epi- 
charmus, he must have been far in advance of his 
age in the construction of a plot ; and, if so, it is 
probable that the expression of Aristotle (to pvOovg 
Tcoiiiv) e refers to this talent, and not (as it is often 
interpreted) to the circumstance that his come- 
dies were generally on mythological subjects. Many 
of the titles of his plays, which are preserved, are 

a Miiller, Dorians, ii. 8. 5 ; iv. 7. 2. 
b Hor. Ep. ii. i. 58. c Arist. Poet. 6. 



EPICHARMUS. FOUNDER Or COMEDY. 17 

doubtless mythological, but it is known that be w 
on other subjects likewise. The titles of thirty-five 

of his comedies are known, twenty-six of which are 
preserved by Athenaeus. He died, according- to Dio- 
genes Laertius. at the age of ninety, according : 
Lucian. at ninetv-seven. s 

For the above reasons, comedy is said to have been 
E : Sicilian origin, and Epicharmus has been considered 
inventor. The assertion of Plato : is perfectly 
consistent with truth, that Epicharmus and Homer 
were the first founders [uzgoi . the former of comedy, 
the latter of tragedy. 

Although Epicharmus was the earliest author of 
written comedy as cultivated amongst the Dorians, 
it is probable that Phormis was his contemporary. 
Hr was a native of Arcadia, but subsequently joined 
the brilliant literary circle which adorned the court 

: Syracuse, Suidas : informs us that he first attired 
his actors in costume, and adorned the stage with 
purple curtains. The eight titles of his comedies. 
which are still extant, show that his subjects were 
principally mythological, that is. they were burlesque 
parodies on popular heroic legends. 

The last of the Dorian comic writers was Dinolochus. 

the pupil of Epicharmus. a native of Agrigentum or 

•use : he is said to have written fooi medies. 

but nothing remains of his works except some of their 

titles. Almost simultaneously with the Dorian 

* rc. 4-5 0- 43. b Plato, Theat. 152. 

: Suidas, s. v. 

VOL. II. C 



18 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

in Sicily, a drama, having the same origin, and nearly 
resembling it in character, was making rapid progress 
in Attica. This was what is technically termed the 
old Attic comedy, the principal writers of which were 
Chionides and Magnes. 

As in the Attic drama, there can plainly be traced 
various stages of progress before it arrived at that which, 
in modern times, is considered the true form of comedy, 
namely, the comedy of character or manners, it has 
been customary to divide it into three species, which 
are termed the old, middle, and new comedy. a These 
divisions are of course arbitrary, and as the advance 
from one stage to another took place gradually, it is 
somewhat difficult to determine accurately the epoch 
when each species gave place to the succeeding one. 
The middle comedy, however, is usually said to com- 
mence about the xcviiith or xcixth Olympiad, and 
to continue until about the cxiith, when Philemon 
and Menander, the authors of the new comedy, began 
to exhibit. 

The characteristic feature of the old comedy is 
personality, that of the middle comedy philosophical 
and literary criticism, and an attack upon the follies 
of classes, rather than of individuals. The new comedy 
is the comedy of manners, and in all respects resem- 
bles that of Plautus and Terence, as well as that of 
modern times. 

As the comedies of Aristophanes are the only 
specimens of the old comedy which have been pre- 
a See Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. Introd. p. 36. 



OLD ATTIC COMEDIES. 19 

served in a sufficiently perfect state, all our ideas re- 
specting its nature must be founded on a study of his 
plays. 

In order to form a correct estimate of its nature it 
is necessary to divest the mind of all notions which 
have been derived from comedies of the present day. 
The tragic principle is the same in all ages, and hence 
between ancient and modern tragedy there are many 
points of resemblance, together with much dissimi- 
larity, but the old Attic comedy is totally unlike its 
modern namesake. It is quite sui generis — there is 
nothing with which it can be compared. In its loose 
and unconnected structure, the incompleteness and 
want of uniformity in its plot, it somewhat resembles 
a modern pantomime. Like pantomime, it consists of 
numerous independent scenes and ludicrous situations, 
satirical attacks on the vices, and sparkling allusions 
to the prevalent follies of the day, and much of the 
humour consists in practical jokes, as well as in the 
smartness of the dialogue and repartee. It also in- 
dulged in the most unrestrained personalities. Real 
personages were exhibited on the stage, the shafts of 
the poet's ridicule were fearlessly directed against 
them. These gross attacks were not confined to 
public characters only, who might be considered fair 
marks for censure as well as praise, but the secrets 
of domestic life were laid open, its sanctity violated, 
the faults of private characters held up to odium 
or ridicule, and even virtuous and patriotic conduct 
sometimes misrepresented and ridiculed. 

c 2 



20 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Nothing was safe from the virulence of the comic 
poet. The most serious business of life was carica- 
tured, the most time-honoured political institutions 
unsparingly criticised — the whole public administra- 
tion, educational, legal, financial, and executive re- 
morselessly attacked. Besides this, the poet assumed 
to himself the functions of a literary censor ; he as- 
pired to lead the public taste and direct the critical 
judgment of the Athenian people on all literary and 
philosophical questions. All this abuse and slander, 
and caricature and criticism, was conveyed in the most 
exquisite and polished style; it was recommended by 
all the refinements of taste and the graces of poetry. 
It was because of this exquisite elegance and purity 
which distinguished the style of the Attic comic 
writing, as well as its energetic power, that Quinctilian 
recommends an orator to study, as the best model 
next to Homer, the writings of the old Attic comedy. 
Doubtless it abounded in grossness and obscenity, such 
as would not be tolerated in dramatic exhibitions of 
the present day. But an age in which man was not 
softened by the influence of good female society, in 
which the virtuous of the female sex were not edu- 
cated so as to fit them for being companions of the 
men, whilst the vicious applied themselves to the 
task of making the leisure hours of the male sex pass 
agreeably by, all the accomplishments and elegances of 
a finished education, was necessarily a gross one. The 
comic poet, therefore, was not the corruptor of his 
countrymen. The worst that can be said against him 



INFLUENCE OF THE OLD COMEDY. 21 

is, that, with all his taste and talent and education, he 
was not in advance of his age in this point — that he 
did not stem the tide of corruption — that he pandered 
to a degraded popular taste instead of using his best 
endeavours to mould it to a higher standard. 

The old comedy was to the Athenians the represen- 
tative of many influences which exist in the present 
day. It was the newspaper, — the review, — the satire, 
— the pamphlet, — the caricature, — the pantomime of 
Athens. 

Addressed to the thousands who flocked to the 
theatre to witness the representation of a new comedy, 
most of whom were keenly alive to every witty allu- 
sion and stroke of satire, and who took a deep inter- 
est in every thing of a public nature, because each 
individual was personally engaged in the administra- 
tion of state affairs, the old comedy must have been 
a powerful engine for good or for evil. There can be 
little doubt, that, scurrilous and immoral as it often 
was, the good, nevertheless, predominated. Gross and 
depraved as the Athenians were already, notwithstand- 
ing their refinement, it is not likely that comedy cor- 
rupted their morals in this respect. The vices which 
prevailed would have existed without it, and were 
neither increased nor fostered by it. 

But the comic poet seems, generally speaking, to 
have been on the side of that which was good in 
taste — in education — in politics. Fostered as the free 
satire of comedy was by the unbounded licence of a 
democracy, and owing its vigour, as well as its exist- 



22 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ence, to the patronage of a sovereign people, it neither 
spared the vices nor flattered the follies of its patrons. 
Like those of the court fool in the middle ages its 
most biting jests were received with good humour, and 
welcomed as acceptable by its supporters, although 
they themselves were the objects of them. 

Notwithstanding the favour with which it was viewed 
by the people, its extreme personality sometimes pro- 
voked the interference of the law. 

In B.C. 440, a law was passed, either prohibiting it 
altogether, or forbidding the representation or men- 
tioning the names of real persons on the stage. a 
During the period when this remained in force, as 
Horace tells us, the comic chorus — 

Turpiter obticuit, sublato jure nocendi. 

Hor. Art. Poet. 

It was again reenacted about B.C. 415, through the 
influence of Alcibiades, whose vanity, ambition, and 
ostentation, attachment to the war party, and support 
of the new systems of philosophy and education had 
drawn upon him the enmity of the comic poet. When- 
ever liberty was crushed, whether in the revolution of 
B.C. 411, or under the tyranny of the Thirty, the spirit 
of comedy was paralyzed, and the succeeding century, 
in which Athenian liberty received its death-blow and 
gradually wasted and declined, soon witnessed the 
change from the bold personalities of the old to the 
more vague generalities of the middle comedy. 

The parabasis is a remarkable feature in the old 
a See Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. Introd. p. 56. 



PARABASIS OF THE OLD COMEDY. 23 

comedy. In it the ideal nature of the representation 
was neglected: the poet himself, or the chorus as his 
representative, together with the audience, were iden- 
tified with the action of the play; tk ? -:, k_ k:- 
own person., addressed the audience as is the case in 
the modern prologue. I> : :ion was almost 

universal, but not absolutely essential: for the •• Eccle- 
siazusse,'*' " Lysis t rata." and " Plutus " have no parabasis. 

It is probable that it originated in some trad:::-: 
custom connected with comedy in its earliest phase. 
Perhaps when, as in tragedy, some ^"::::ri: re :•:::.:::■;> 
succeeded the extemporaneous effusions of 
the poet accompanied and directed the chorus and 
exercised the privilege of -pecking his mind to the 
people. 

The grammarians assumed no less than six technical 
divisions of the parabasis. The principal par: was 
written in anapaestic, sometimes trochaic verse. 
ended with a succession of short lines to be re] eated 
in a breath, and this was called vwyoc, because the 
rapidity of utterance produced the effect of choking. 

In the parabasis the subject of the play migh: 
totally neglected : it was not necessary to make a 
single allusion to it. The poet considered himself at 
liberty to call the attention of the audience to any 
matters of public interest, or to circumstances which 
concerned himself individually : ke n:i.k: k:k_ :oi" :: :i 
either seriously or in jest any measures for reforming 
state abuses, or he might sing his own praises, or pur=re 
himself from anv malignant slanders or accusations 



24 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The unconnected nature of the plot prevented this 
from being considered an interruption, and it never 
struck the Athenian people, whom every novelty 
amused, that it destroyed the dramatic effect, or pre- 
vented them from realizing to themselves the events 
which took place upon the stage. 



CHIONIDES. 25 



CHAPTER X. 

CHIONIDES. MAGNES. QUOTATION FROM ARISTOPHANES RESPECTING 

HIM. CRATINUS. — HORACE'S OPINION OF HIM. — TESTIMONY OF 

ARISTOPHANES. EUPOLIS — STORY OF HIS DEATH. CRATES. FRAG- 
MENT OF ONE OF HIS COMEDIES TRANSLATED BY CUMBERLAND. 

QUOTATION FROM ARISTOPHANES. HIS LIFE. AGE AT WHICH A 

DRAMATIC POET COULD EXHIBIT. HIS FIRST COMEDY, THE BAN- 
QUETERS, THE ACHARNIANS, — THE KNIGHTS, — THE CLOUDS, 

THE WASPS, THE PEACE, THE LYSISTRATA, — THEZMOPHORIAZUS.E, 

THE ECCLESIAZUS^J, — THE FROGS, — THE BIRDS, — THE PLUTUS. 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

» 

CHIONIDES. 

Chionides was the oldest Athenian comic writer. 
Suidas calls him the protagonist of the old comedy. 
He fixes the period at which he first exhibited eight 
years before the Persian war. Others, on the autho- 
rity of Aristotle, a assert, that he flourished more than 
twenty years later. There are, however, strong grounds 
for disputing the genuineness of this passage in the 
" Poetics." Of his comedies nothing remains, except 
three titles and two quotations. He was followed in a 
few years by Magnes, of whom mention is made in the 
" Knights " of Aristophanes. b 

a Arist. Poet. iii. b Aristoph. Eq. v. 520. 



26 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Could it 'scape observing sight what was Magnes' wretched plight, 

When his hairs and his temples were hoary, 
Yet who battled with more zeal or more trophies left to tell, 

Of his former achievements and glory 1 
He came piping, dancing, tapping, figgnatting and wing-clapping, 

Frog-besmeared, and with Lydian grimaces ; 
Yet he, too, had his date, nor could wit nor merit great 

Preserve him unchanged in your graces. 
Youth passed brilliantly and bright, when his head was old and 
white, 

Strange reverse and hard fortune confronted. 
What boots taste or tact, forsooth, if they 've lost their nicest truth, 

Or a wit where the edge has grown blunted ? 

Mitchell. 

From this passage it appears that he arrived at an 
advanced age, and outlived his popularity ; that with 
his physical vigour he lost his humour and powers of 
amusement. His victories, his versatility of talent, and 
ingenuity in imitations, evidenced by the varied titles 
of his plays were forgotten by the fickle multitude, and 
they deserted their old favourite for more lively com- 
petitors. Nine plays and two victories are attributed 
to him, but the testimony of Aristophanes seems to 
point to far more than these. Only a few lines now 
remain of the comedies of Magnes. 

Cratinus. 

Amongst the numerous poets of the old comedy, 
Horace a and Quinctilian have accustomed us to con- 
sider Cratinus, Eupolis, and Aristophanes as the chief. 
Although they succeeded one another in the above 

a Hor. Sat. i. iv. 1. 



CHARACTER OF CRATINUS. 27 

order they were contemporaries and rivals. Cratinus 
was a native of Attica, and was born about B.C. 519. 
Little is known of his life, and that little rests upon 
doubtful authority. We are told, for example, on the 
one hand, a that he never gained a dramatic victory 
until he was more than eighty years old ; on the other, 6 
that he began to exhibit at about sixty-five years of 
age. The historical evidence is in favour of this latter 
statement. Like Magnes, he outlived his popularity, 
which commenced so late in life. He was as great a 
lover of conviviality as Aristophanes, and was cele- 
brated for the genial and bacchanalian spirit, which 
warmed his poetry, and which rendered it certain that 
they could not have been the productions of a water- 
drinker, to whom no one was a bitterer foe than Cra- 
tinus. Horace, who was a thorough believer in the 
poetical inspiration of wine, supports his opinion by 
the authority of Cratinus in the following lines : — 

Prisco si credis, Maecenas docte, Cratino, 
Nulla placere dm nee vivere carmina possunt, 
Quae scribuntur aquae potoribus. 

Hon. Up. i. xix. 1. 

Probably, therefore, there is some truth in the accu- 
sation of Suidas, that he carried his love of social 
enjoyment to a vicious excess, and that he deserved 
the epithet which was given him of " Philpot " 
(Qikonorrig). His poetry appears to have been full of 
spirit and energy, his language highly figurative, his 
metre so bold and grand, especially the lyrical portion, 
a Vit. Anon. »> Euseb. Chron. 



28 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

as to have been considered equal to those of the trage- 
dians. He wrote twenty-one comedies, none of which 
have survived ; and gained Dine victories, in one of 
which he vanquished Aristophanes himself. His great 
rival was fully aware of his fervid imagination, and of 
his impetuous and torrent-like eloquence. In the 
same passage a in which he describes his desertion by 
his fickle and ungrateful admirers, he speaks of the 
high place which he ought to occupy in the public 
estimation, although he could not refrain from in- 
dulging his love of humour and satire — 

Who Cratinus may forget, or the storm of whim and wit 

Which shook theatres under his guiding 1 
When Panegyric's song poured her flood of praise along 

Who but he on the top wave was riding 1 
Foe nor rival might him meet, plane and oak ta'en by the feet, 

Did him instant and humble prostration ; 
For his step was as the tread of a flood that leaves its bed, 

And his march it was rude desolation. 

tt» ^? ^F vfc v 

Thus in glory was he seen while his years as yet were green ; 

But now that his dotage is on him, 
God help him ! for no eye of all those who pass him by 

Throws a look of compassion upon him. 
'Tis a conch, but with the loss of its garnish and its gloss ; 

'Tis a harp that hath lost all its crowning ; 
'Tis a pipe where deftest hand may the stops no more command, 

Nor on it divisions be running. 

***** 
Oh, if ever yet a bard waited, page-like, high reward, 

Former exploits and just reputation, 
By an emphasis of right, some had earned this noble wight, 

In the hall a most constant potation : 

a Aristoph. Eq. 532. 



LIFE OF EUPOLIS. 29 

And in theatre's high station there a mark for admiration 

To anchor her aspect and face on ; 
In his honour he should sit, nor serve triflers in the pit 

As an object their rude jests to pass on. 

Mitchell. 



Eupolis. 

Eupolis was not more than two years older than 
Aristophanes, and was, therefore, probably born about 
B.C. 446. Suidas informs us that he was seventeen 
years old when he exhibited his first comedy. This 
event, therefore, must have taken place about B.C. 429. 
An improbable story is told of his having been thrown 
overboard by Alcibiades and drowned, when on his 
way to Sicily, because of a personal attack in one of 
his comedies. The more likely account is a that he fell 
in a naval engagement in the Hellespont, perhaps at 
the battle of JEgospotami. 

As Cratinus was celebrated for the bitterness of 
his satire, Eupolis, though probably no less personal 
in his caricature, was distinguished for his broad 
humour, and the ingenuity of his doubles entendres. 
Aristophanes was not only a rival, but an imitator, 
of Eupolis, and the latter accuses him, in his " Baptse," 
of direct plagiarism. 

This charge Aristophanes b retorts upon Eupolis in 
the " Clouds," and seems very sore at Eupolis having 
joked him on the subject of his baldness. 

Suidas attributes to him seventeen comedies, of 

a Suidas, s. v. b Aristoph. Clouds, 549. c Ibid. 530. 



30 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

which modern critics have asserted that fifteen are 
genuine, and of these the titles are preserved. 

Crates. 

The name of Crates must not be passed over. He 
was a contemporary of Cratinus, bat somewhat younger. 
He commenced as an actor in the comedies of Cra- 
tinus, and afterwards wrote plays remarkable for their 
broad humour and drollery. He is said to have been 
the first Attic poet bold enough to follow the example 
of Epicharmus, and introduce drunken characters on 
the stage. Fourteen plays have been attributed to 
him, and of eight of these a few fragments remain : 
the most beautiful amongst them has been thus trans- 
lated by Cumberland. 

" These shrivelled sinews, and this bending frame, 
The workmanship of Time's strong hand proclaim ; 
Skilled to reverse whate'er the gods create, 
And make that crooked which they fashion straight. 
Hard choice for men to die — or else to be 
That tottering, wretched, wrinkled thing you see ! 
Age, then, we all prefer, for age we pray, 
And travel on to life's last lingering day, 
Then sinking slowly down from worse to worse, 
Find heaven's ecstatic boon our greatest curse." 

Aristophanes tells us that Crates was, like his pre- 
decessors, in his turn a victim to the fickleness of 
the Athenian peopled 

a Aristoph. Knights, 550. 



LIFE OF ARISTOPHANES. 31 

I spare myself the toil to record the buffets vile, 

The affronts, and the contumelies hateful, 
Which on Crates frequent fell ; yet I dare you, sirs, to tell 

Where was caterer more pleasing or grateful 1 
Who knew better how to lay soup piquant and entremets, 

Dainty patties and little side-dishes 1 
Where, with all your bards, a muse cooked more delicate ragouts, 

Or hashed sentiment so to your wishes ? 

Mitchell. 

Aristophanes. 

Aristophanes was, as he himself tells us, a native 
of the Attic borough Cydathene. The precise date 
of his birth is unknown, 3 but as he was very nearly 
the same age as Eupolis, and almost a youth (pypbov 
(AsigctziGzog) when, during the time of the plague at 
Athens, he exhibited his first comedy B.C. 427, the 
probability is, that he was born about B.C. 445. He 
possessed some property in JEgina, and hence some 
accounts assert that he was born in that island. His 
father's name was Philip, and, according to Athenian 
custom, one of his three sons also bore that name. In 
early life he was a pupil of Prodicus, and thus became 
acquainted with that sophistical system of education 
which he afterwards attacked so violently in his come- 
dies. His stature was tall, his frame powerful, his 
temper social and convivial. The demagogue Cleon, 
whose enmity he had provoked by his unsparing satire, 
brought an action against him to deprive him of his 
rights as a citizen, but a verdict was given in his 
favour. So popular was he, b that a crown of olive 
a Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. b Plutarch. 



32 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

was publicly decreed to him, and his wit and genius, 
added to the social qualities of a perfect man of the 
world, rendered him an acceptable friend and asso- 
ciate of Plato and the other distinguished men who 
were his contemporaries. His last comedy was ex- 
hibited B.C. 388, and he died at the advanced age of 
seventy years, having been the author of fifty-four 
plays, 3 of which eleven are extant. 

The following epigram in honour of him is pre- 
served in the " Anthologia." 

Al XdpiTEQ TEfXEVOQ TL \a&£~ll>, 07TEp OV^l TTSffElrai, 

ZrjTovirai, ipvxfjv Evpov 'ApMrToQavovg. 

" Once did the Graces wish for a shrine which never should perish, 
And as they sought, they the soul found of Aristophanes." 

BANQUETERS. 

His earliest comedy was the " Banqueters" (Aoctrcc- 
Kstg), which he exhibited under the name of " Philo- 
medes," since, until he exhibited the " Knights," he 
was below the age at which it was legal to compete 
for a prize. 

What the legal age was at which a dramatic poet 
was admissible as a competitor, it is impossible to 
determine. The scholiast on Aristophanes fixes it at 
thirty years, but it is well known that iEschylus, 
Sophocles, and Euripides, all exhibited tragedies be- 
fore they had arrived at that age. Clinton b has 
satisfactorily proved that the law of which the scho- 

a Suidas, s. v. b Clinton, vol. ii. Introd. p. 56. 



SUBJECT OF THE BANQUETERS. 33 

liast speaks, referred, not to dramatic poets, but to 
the ten ftrogeg, or public orators, who were elected 
by lot to plead state causes in the senate or ecclesia. 
Nothing more can be stated with certainty, than that 
there was some restriction as to age, or else Aris- 
tophanes would have been able to exhibit the u Ban- 
queters " in his own name, as he did the "Knights" 
five years subsequently. Young as he was when he 
brought out his maiden comedy, the second prize 
was awarded to him. 

The subject of this play is an attack upon the 
modern system of education introduced by the so- 
phists. Aristophanes was a man of the old school, 
and a great admirer of the old Athenian educational 
theory, in which the culture of body and mind 
went hand in hand. He believed in the utility of 
the play-ground as well as the school-room, he thought 
that gymnastics, as well as literature, were essential, 
in order to develope the manly vigour of a nation. 
Under the modern system, he saw that the study of 
a sophistical rhetoric and of the flippant and subtle 
arts which fitted the student for the ecclesia or the 
law-court, so absorbed the thoughts of the youthful 
citizens, that the hardy exercises of the palaestra were 
neglected. This produced an effeminate mode of 
life, as well as a foppish tone of mind, amongst the 
voung fashionable Athenians, destructive of public 
morals. The very cleverness and shrewdness and 
command of language, which their education gave 
them, fostered self-conceit and disrespect for lawful 

vol. II. D 



34 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

authority, and young Athens bade fair, puffed up with 
superficial showy accomplishments, to despise their 
more sober-minded and simple elders as old-fashioned, 
and to ridicule the generation for which the poet 
himself, though but a boy, felt the highest respect 
and admiration. 

This comedy has been likewise supposed to have 
had a sanitary object. The terrible plague was now 
raging at Athens, and the poet thought that the 
gymnastic exercises, which formed an integral part 
of the old education, would be advantageous to the 
health of the people. 

ACHARNIANS. 

The " Acharnians" was the earliest of his extant plays, 
and was exhibited in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian 
war. In it the poet paints the sad evils of war, the 
miseries to which the necessary policy of Pericles 
had subjected the country-loving Athenians. Con- 
sequently, in it the poet ludicrously attributes the 
war itself to a personal insult offered to Pericles. It 
was a theme likely to be popular. The Athenians 
delighted in the freedom of rural life, they missed 
their farms and their villas, they could not bear to 
see them year after year devastated by the Lacedae- 
monian armies, whilst they were confined in a close, 
and stifling, and pestilential city. Acharnae was the 
largest and richest borough of Attica, and was the 
first to suffer from the Spartan invasion. Dicaeopolis, 
a native of that demus, is represented as making a 



PLOT OF THE ACHARNIANS. 35 

separate peace for himself and his family, and enjoy- 
ing all the amusements and festivities and plenty 
and good cheer, which constitute the blessings of 
quiet times. He can command every delicacy which 
could whet the appetite of an Athenian epicure. 
Dicseopolis is a free-trader, and rejoices that, as far 
as he himself is concerned, the war restrictions on 
commerce are removed, and that the opening of 
the Boeotian markets supplies him with all the foreign 
luxuries which he wants, and of which the war has 
so long deprived him, in the quiet retirement of his 
farm. 

He and his family celebrate the rural Dionysia 
with all its attendant ceremonies and gay processions. 
In the midst of these enjoyments, Lamachus, as the 
representative of the war-party, sends his servant to 
beg permission to purchase a few thrushes and eels ; a 
spirited dialogue ensues, in which are contrasted the 
enjoyments of peace and the hardships of war. 

Lamachus soon returns from his campaign, and 
wounds and disasters, and almost death, put a finish- 
ing stroke to the exploits of the ill-fated and vain- 
glorious general, whilst, as the play concludes, the 
song of victory proclaims the jovial triumph of the 
peace-loving Dicseopolis. 

KNIGHTS. 

The next of his extant plays was the " Knights ;" 
it was exhibited B.C. 424, and gained the first prize. 
The vulgar and arrogant demagogue, Cleon, was now 

D 2 



36 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

at the height of his power and popularity, it there- 
fore required no small amount of courage to attack 
him. But the young poet was a fearless patriot. 
No artist could be found willing to model a mask 
representing the well-known coarse features of the 
popular leader. Callistratus, the best comic actor 
of the day, shrunk from personating the character. 
But Aristophanes would not be disappointed of his 
purpose. He smeared his face with wine lees, and 
acted the part himself, and, enlisting in his cause the 
knights who held the second place in rank and fortune 
amongst the Athenian citizens, and whose military 
exploits gave them a high claim to respect and con- 
sideration, he proceeded, as he beforehand threatened, 
to cut him up into soles for shoes. 

Personifying the Athenian people as Demus, in the 
same way that the people of England are represented 
as John Bull, he faithfully represents in this cha- 
racter all the vices and follies, public and private, 
of his countrymen. This ill-tempered, cross-grained, 
jealous-pated, self-indulgent, old gentleman, has just 
bought a new Paphlagonian slave, by trade a tanner. 
This slave is Cleon, who appeals to the superstitious 
feelings of Demus by flattering oracles, and to his 
selfishness, by supplying his table with his favourite 
dainties, and by his noisy tongue and disgusting sub- 
servience, gains a complete ascendancy over his con- 
fiding master. 

Nicias and Demosthenes, the leaders of the aris- 
tocratic party, are slaves in the same household, 



SUBJECT OF THE CLOUDS. 37 

and determine to rid themselves of the overbearing 
tyranny of the new steward, by raising up a formid- 
able rival, who can beat him with his own weapons. 
This is a sausage-seller, more ^vulgar, low, arrogant, 
and a greater adept in the art of a popular leader and 
of those demagogues, whom Aristophanes hated mor- 
tally, than even Cleon himself. The plot succeeds, 
the sausage-seller becomes a reformed character, and 
Demus, boiled in a magic caldron, turns out a ge- 
nuine Athenian of the olden time, a worthy descend- 
ant of the heroes who fought at Marathon. 

CLOUDS. 

The " Clouds," which was exhibited B.C. 423, is the 
most important of all his comedies. And though it 
was unsuccessful in the contest for the prize, owing 
to the strong party excited against it by Alcibiades, it 
must certainly be ranked as the best of the author's 
productions. In it the modern school of subtle and 
sophistical philosophy was the object of the poet's 
attack. The genius of the old Attic comedy was 
powerless, unless it indulged in personality; it de- 
manded the representation of an individual, even when 
it attacked a class. Personality was its essence. The 
whole race of demagogues was personified by Cleon ; 
the war-party by Lamachus ; the philosophy of the 
day was represented by Socrates. Why, then, was 
a philosopher, whose opinions differed so materially 
from those attacked, selected as the representative of 
them ? 



38 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The sophists professed, at a certain price, to make 
their pupils men of the world ; to teach them how to 
get on in life ; to be skilful speakers (Xsznzoi), good 
men of business (wgomriKoi), full of resource (priyjzviKoi), 
ready debaters (l?][jb?iyogi%ol), sharp practitioners (hzcc- 
vmol). These were the ends whichgthey proposed to 
themselves, but they were unscrupulous as to the 
means. 

Socrates, on the other hand, without fee or reward, 
devoted himself to the task of regenerating Athenian 
society ; his object was to make the youth of Athens 
high-principled, honourable gentlemen (tcaXoi z olyaQoi). 

But in looking about for a type of the philosopher, 
Aristophanes naturally fixed upon the one who at- 
tracted the largest share of the public attention ; who, 
from the tenor of his life and teaching, had made 
himself the greatest number of enemies; and who, 
for his eccentricities, laid himself most open to comic 
ridicule. All these conditions were fulfilled in So- 
crates. 

He was the most notorious of all who professed to 
be public instructors. He did not deliver his lectures 
to a select class of friends and pupils, but was always 
ready to converse and dispute in public with persons 
of every degree of intellect and rank and station. 
Few, the comic poet amongst the number, had any 
intimate knowledge of his sentiments or doctrines, 
or cared strictly to investigate them. The general 
notion prevailed, that he assented to, rather than 
believed in, the popular mythology ; all knew that 



WHY SOCRATES WAS ATTACKED. 39 

he was a philosopher, and, therefore, without further 
inquiry, assumed that his philosophy was that which 
Aristophanes denounced as the cause of the prevalent 
moral corruption. Besides, he was an admirable 
subject for caricature ; his ugly face, which was even 
copied in pottery and earthenware ; his absent man- 
ners, which caused him at Potidgea to stand stock- 
still a whole day ; a his wild stare to the right and 
left as he walked ; b his bare feet and careless dress 
and disregard of the common practices of Athenian 
polite life, pointed him out as the very man to re- 
present the professors of that fiiTiagoGocpiu, or soaring 
wisdom, which disdained the common concerns of life, 
which only cared 

" To tread the air, and contemplate the sun." 

It would have been expecting too much to hope 
that the keen wit of Aristophanes could have fore- 
gone an opportunity thus spontaneously presented to 
him. Everybody in Athens knew him, and the mo- 
ment his representative appeared on the stage would 
recognise him. He was too fair a mark to be passed 
over. It is commonly said that a satirical temper 
will sacrifice a friend for the sake of a jest, and to 
make a butt of the philosopher was an irresistible 
temptation to Aristophanes. Probably he did not 
wish to injure him, nor, in fact, did he. The asser- 
tion that the attack in the " Clouds " was instru- 
mental in causing the death of Socrates so many 

8 Symp. p. 462. b Ibid. p. 464. 



40 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

years after, is too groundless to dwell upon for an 
instant. Nor can any one read this comedy without 
perceiving that, although the satire is pungent, it 
is good-natured, and that the effect likely to be pro- 
duced by it was not a hostile feeling, but a hearty 
laugh at the absurdities and follies of a mistaken old 
man. 

WASPS. 

In the " Wasps " the object of the poet is to attack 
the well-known litigiousness of the Athenian people. 
Philocleon (lover of Cleon), a name doubtless adopted 
in order to strike a second blow against that object of 
his deserved detestation, is represented as a victim of 
this absorbing passion. His son Bdelycleon (abomi- 
naior q/Cleon), tries to cure him of his taste. In order 
to wean him from attending the courts, he establishes 
a court of justice in his own house, and brings the 
house-dog before this august tribunal for stealing a 
Sicilian cheese. So simple is the plot, and the whole 
life of the play rests upon its broad humour and the 
buffoonery of Philocleon. 

But its object was a most important one: nothing 
could be worse than the administration of justice at 
Athens ; the small fee paid to the dicasts, or jurymen, 
caused the mass of the people to look to this employ- 
ment as one of their means of living. Bribery was by 
no means uncommon ; the power which an unscru- 
pulous dicast necessarily wielded puffed up the pride of 
the populace and rendered them formidable enemies, 
and the temptation was a strong one to replenish the 



PLOT OF THE PEACE. 41 

public treasury by fines and confiscations, because not 
only the state but individuals participated in its 
wealth. Sycophancy, or false accusations by common 
informers, became a complete scourge ; and no man's 
life or property was safe from an accusation of treason 
against the sovereign people. This comedy furnished a 
model to Racine for his only comedy " Les Plaideurs," 
which, though a copy, and inferior, perhaps, in breadth 
of humour, far surpasses the original in the skill and 
art with which the plot is constructed. 

PEACE. 

The " Peace " has the same end in view as the 
" Acharnians," namely, to show what the author had 
so much at heart — the miseries and privations attend- 
ant upon a long-protracted war. 

Trygaeus, an Athenian citizen, rides to heaven on a 
beetle, in order to see whether he can persuade the 
gods to put an end to the war. He finds that Zeus 
and the gods are from home, and that War has thrown 
Peace into a well, whilst he and Tumult are pounding 
the Greek states in a mortar,— the generals being the 
pestles which he uses for that purpose. Trygaeus suc- 
ceeds, with the assistance of a band of rustics, who, 
of course, as representing the Athenian country party, 
are on his side, in liberating Peace, and brings her with 
triumph and rejoicing to Athens. 



42 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



LYSISTRATA. 

In the " Lysistrata," on the plot of which it is impos- 
sible to dwell, as it is one of the coarsest of the Aristo- 
phanic dramas, the evils of war are again brought 
forward, and peace is made by the influence of Lysis- 
trata and her female associates. 

THESMOPHORIAZUS^I. 

The title of the " Thesmophoriazusse " originates 
in the Thesmophoria, or feast of Ceres and Proserpine, 
at which women alone were present. It is a bitter 
attack upon the vices prevalent amongst the female 
sex. The poet makes it a medium for attacking and 
parodying the tragedies of Euripides. His rhetorical 
style and sophistical philosophy was hateful to Aristo- 
phanes. He was deeply impressed with the idea that 
Euripides had substituted mere dialectical ingenuity for 
the straightforward wisdom enunciated in the gnomes 
of iEschylus and Sophocles. He grieved over the 
probable destruction, by this means, of national vigour 
and manly discipline. The following is the simple 
plot of this play. Euripides, informed that the women 
will take advantage of their assembling at the festival 
to avenge themselves on him for his misogynous tem- 
per, disguises his brother-in-law Mnesilochus as a 
woman, and sends him to plead in his behalf. The 
women discover the deceit, and Euripides, in order to 
effect the rescue of his relative, assumes a number 
of characters. This gives occasion to many clever 



ecclesiazuSjE, frogs. 43 

and amusing parodies of scenes in the Euripidean 
tragedy. 

ECCLESIAZUS.E. 

In the Ecclesiazusse, or the "Female Members of 
Parliament," a play which, is like the " Lysistrata," full 
of grossness and obscenity, some discontented women 
disguise themselves in male attire, and vote in the 
assembly that the supreme political power should be 
transferred from the men to themselves. Its subject 
is purely political. The Utopian theories of Plato, 
and the institutions of the great rival of Athens, 
Sparta, which were the object of that great philoso- 
pher's admiration, were the mark at which the comic 
poet aimed the shafts of his ridicule ; but this was 
not all, the purpose of comedy would not have been 
attained if he had not struck nearer home. It was 
also intended as a warning addressed to all restless 
innovators, to beware how they endangered by fanciful 
reforms the integrity of the Athenian institution. 

FROGS. 

The " Frogs " continues the attack upon the Euripi- 
dean tragedy, which was begun in the " Thesmophoria- 
zusse." All the great tragic poets were now dead, and 
Greek tragedy had arrived at its period of decay. 
Dionysus, therefore, the god of tragedy, descends to 
the infernal regions in search of a poet. iEschylus 
and Euripides contend for the honour of returning to 
earth. A most amusing contest ensues, in which the 
peculiar merits and defects of each poet are exhibited, 



44 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

compared, and criticised. The question is for a long 
time undecided, but at last Euripides is ruined by his 
dishonest sophistry. He suffers a double defeat, for 
not only is iEschylus selected to return to earth, but 
Sophocles is, during his absence, installed in the 
tragic throne below. 

The comedy of the " Frogs " is distinguished for the 
beauty of its choral odes, as all the Aristophanic come- 
dies are for the Attic purity of their style. These 
sweet and graceful poems satisfactorily prove that, 
whilst the author of them surpassed in wit all those 
writers who were eminent in his own walk of litera- 
ture, he equalled in elegance of language and lyric 
talent the tragic poets themselves. 

THE BIRDS. 

The " Birds," which was acted B.C. 414, and gained 
the second prize, is pronounced by Silvern, in his ela- 
borate essay, to be the most ingenious of all the poet's 
works. This very ingenuity renders it extremely dif- 
ficult to discover the poet's object, and the facts 
which he has allegorically represented. Schlegel 
considers it as a piece of farcical buffoonery, of which 
the mechanism is like that of a fairy-tale, but not 
without some philosophical purpose. The more pro- 
bable interpretation given of it by Siivern is, that 
Aristophanes wished to exhibit the corrupt and un- 
healthy state of Athenian society, and to prove to 
them that there was no hope of amelioration, except 
by a thorough moral reform and entire reconstruction 



PLOT OF THE BIRDS. 45 

of their social system. He had also in his mind's eye, 
as a secondary object, the unfortunate Sicilian expe- 
dition, the folly of which he incidentally makes the 
subject of his humorous satire. 

The plot of the play is as follows : — Peisthetserus, 
an Athenian of a sophistical turn, and his friend 
Euelpides, whose temper, as his name implies, is of 
that light-hearted and sanguine kind which charac- 
terized the Athenian people, are disgusted with the 
state of things at Athens. At the suggestion of an 
oracle, they visit Tereus, who had been changed into 
a hoopoe, and propose to him a scheme for building 
a city, by which the birds shall regain universal 
dominion, and this new dynasty shall be the authors 
of unspeakable blessings to mankind. 

The proposal is favourably received by an assembly 
of the birds, convened for the purpose of discussion by 
the hoopoe, and a city is built called Nephelococcygia, 
or Cloud-cuckoo-town. Situated between earth and 
heaven, it cuts off all communication between gods 
and men, and starves the latter into conceding the 
supreme sovereignty of the world to the birds, and 
Zeus gives Peisthetserus his daughter in marriage. 
If, as has been stated, there is in this comedy an 
allusion to the Sicilian expedition, the founding of 
Cloud-cuckoo-town would represent the attempt to 
establish Athenian supremacy in the Mediterranean, 
cut off the communication between Sparta and her 
allies in Sicily and Magna Graecia, as the imaginary 
city prevented all intercourse between gods and men, 



46 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and thus reduce the pretensions of the Lacedaemo- 
nians. 

In support of this theory it may be urged, that, 
according to Thucydides, the Athenians did in reality 
entertain these ulterior designs. He states that the 
reason why Alcibiades so warmly advocated the Sicilian 
expedition, contrary to the advice of Nicias, was that 
he hoped by means of it to gain possession not only 
of Sicily but Carthage likewise. 3 And when, on his 
traitorous desertion to Sparta, he endeavours to per- 
suade the Spartans to enter into the Syracusan quarrel, 5 
he does not hesitate to say that the ambitious design 
of the Athenians was to subdue first Sicily, then Italy, 
next to invade Carthage, then to increase their army 
by the enlistment of Iberian mercenaries, and to 
reinforce their fleet by means of the timber of the 
Italian forests, thus invest the Peloponnese by sea 
and land, and finally extend their supremacy (agx/i) 
over the whole Greek nation. 

PLTJTUS. 

The " Plutus " which had, in another form, been 
represented twenty years before, furnishes a specimen 
of the middle comedy. It was an allegorical satire 
upon a class, not upon individuals; and, as Addison 
has already observed, it conveyed two moral lessons. 
In the first place, it vindicated the conduct of Provi- 
dence in the distribution of wealth ; and in the next, 

* Thuc. vi. 15. » Ibid. vi. 90. 

c Addison, Spect. No. 464. 



PLOT OF THE PLUTUS. 47 

it showed the tendency of riches to corrupt the morals 
of those who possessed them. 

Plutus was struck blind by Zeus, because he declared 
that he would grant wealth only to the virtuous. 
Chremylus, a good old man, but poor, falls in with 
him, and persuades him to accompany him home. 
His old intimate, Poverty, refuses to turn out, and 
reads him a good lecture in political economy, telling 
him that she was the mother of the arts, and that if 
every one were rich, there would be no producers of 
the luxuries which wealth purchases. She is, however, 
at last ejected. Plutus is then restored to sight by 
iEsculapius, and immediately commences the course 
which he had intended in early life. At length 
Hermes enters and complains, that, now that good men 
are rich, the gods get no sacrifices, and the priests 
are starved. Even the good old Chremylus becomes 
corrupted by wealth, and forsaking his trust in Provi- 
dence, proposes to set up Plutus in the temple of 
Zeus. 

Such was the old Attic comedy, as learned from the 
comedies of Aristophanes. The following is the 
chronological order in which, according to Clinton, 
the extant comedies of Aristophanes were exhibited : 

B. 0. 425. " Acharnians." B. C. 411. " Lysistrata." 

424. " Knights." 411. " Thesmophoriazusse." 

422. "Clouds." 405. "Frogs." 

422. " Wasps." 392. " Ecelesiazusse." 

421. "Peace." 388. "Plutus." 

414. " Birds." 



48 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The remaining poets of the old and middle comedy a 
constitute a long list of names, but the few fragments 
which remain of their works render any notice of 
them uninteresting and unnecessary. The poets of 
the new comedy flourished subsequently to the period 
comprehended in this history. 

a See Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, Introd. p. 36. 



EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC HISTORY. 49 



CHAPTER XI. 



WHY HISTORY WAS CULTIVATED EARLIER AMONG THE SEMITIC NATIONS 

THAN AMONG THE GREEKS. PHERECYDES OF LEROS. HIS WORKS. 

— CHARON OF LAMPSACUS. HELLANICUS. HERODORUS OF HERACLEA. 

HERODOTUS. THE IMPROVEMENTS WHICH HE INTRODUCED INTO 

HISTORY. HIS BIRTH, PARENTAGE, NATIVE CITY. — HIS SOURCES OF 

INFORMATION. HIS TRAVELS. — THE TRADITION THAT HE RECITED 

HIS HISTORY AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES. HIS RESIDENCE AT SAMOS, 

ATHENS, AND THURII. HE DID NOT TRAVEL MUCH IN ITALY. 

SOME OF HIS IDEAS TAKEN FROM SOPHOCLES. HIS POETIC TALENTS. 

METHOD IN WHICH HE INTRODUCES HIS DIGRESSIONS, HIS AUTHO- 
RITY AS AN HISTORIAN. HIS STYLE OF WRITING. HIS RELIGIOUS 

SENTIMENTS. — THE GEOGRAPHY OF HERODOTUS. 

For many centuries, whilst the literature of Greece 
was limited to poetry, the Egyptians and Semitic 
nations had been the possessors of genuine and 
authentic historical records. These not only contain 
narratives of events, but are also of inestimable 
chronological value, and the investigation of them is 
adding every year fresh stores of information to the 
history of the ancient world. 

The hieroglyphics on Egyptian monuments, the 
arrow-headed inscriptions of Assyria, the sculptures 
of Nineveh, are all so many historical works, and by 
the light which they mutually throw on one another 

VOL. II. E 



50 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

are capable of furnishing a trustworthy account of 
the length of dynasties, the duration of empires, the 
lives and conquests of kings, the natural productions 
and state of civilization in different nations, the habits 
and manners of both the conquering and the conquered 
people. The Jews, also, from their peculiar condition 
as the chosen people of the Most High, possessed 
historical writings still more ancient and more perfect 
than any other nation. 

The Greeks, on the other hand, had no history, 
properly so called, until the period on which we are 
now entering. A taste for history had been formed at 
the time when Cadmus and Acusilaus and Hecatseus 
flourished, but they had neither the power nor the 
materials for satisfying that taste. There were no 
annals or registers previously existing which they 
could consult, or which could teach them the habits 
of historical inquiry and investigation. They had not 
yet begun to chronicle and register contemporaneous 
records and memorials, and thus to collect materials 
for future historians. The names of victors in the 
national games, with the dates of their triumphs, and 
interpolated lists of priestesses of Here* at Argos, 
constituted almost all their early annals. 

Such is the difference which exists on this point 
between the Greeks and the Semitic nations. The 
reason for this difference is to be found in their 
respective political and social conditions. The nations 
of the East were under the sway of despotic monarchs 
and had established hierarchies. Both of these insti- 



WHY HISTORY DID NOT FLOURISH IN GREECE. 51 

tutions are favourable to the storing up and preser- 
vation of historical records. The Greeks had neither 
priestly castes nor hereditary despotisms. Under an 
absolute monarchy, a nation exists only in the name 
of its sovereign : everything centres in him : the glory 
of his people becomes his glory. Historical records 
are the monarch's private diary. It is his personal 
interest that nothing should be forgotten of his wars, 
progresses, victories, and extensions of dominion. 
The walls of palaces and temples are made, by 
means of inscriptions and sculptures and paintings, 
to minister to his vanity, and to hand down imperish- 
able records of his fame to posterity. All the learned 
men in the empire would naturally be found at his 
court, and would take his exploits for their theme. 

Again, it is the tendency of a priesthood religiously 
to preserve all historical documents. The Jewish 
priesthood were appointed to this important office by 
divine authority. The Egyptian priests were the 
recognized sources of information to whom Herodotus 
always applied. In the Assyrian sculptures and in- 
scriptions may be found many traces of priestly 
influence. The colleges of priests and augurs at 
Rome were the depositaries of the national annals. 
The monks of the middle ages were at once the 
preservers of literature and the historians of their 
times. 

Amongst the Greeks all these encouragements and 
aids to history were wanting; there was no central 
point round which all the events of former times 

E 2 



J 



52 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

would group themselves, or to which the whole 
interest would converge. But besides, the glory of 
Greece as one nation did not commence until their 
struggle for independence in the Persian war, and it 
was this very war which taught them the need of 
history, and immediately that the need was felt, sup- 
plied it, by producing an historian. The only previous 
occasion on whfch Greece was supposed to have fought 
as one united people, namely, in the Trojan war, was 
at a p Wj^fi so; distant as necessarily to belong to my- 
th ologyaTO poetry. 

Pherecydes of leros. 

The first historian of the flourishing era of Greek 
literature, Pherecydes, had scarcely emancipated him- 
self frojn the mythical taste of his predecessors. He 
was born in the little island of Leros ; the date of his 
birth is unknown, but he flourished during the Persian 
war. As he took up his residence at Athens, he is 
called both a Lerian and art Athenian. Lucian places 
him amongst his examples of longevity, and he is said 
to have lived to the age of eighty-five. His tradi- 
tional history, in ten books, consists of^amily records 
of the ancient Athenian houses, and connects them 
with the gods and heroes of the mythical period. The 
only portion of his works which is valuable, in an 
historical point of view, is an account of Darius's 
Scythian Expedition. 



CHARON, HELLANICUS. 53 

Charon. 

Charon of Lampsacus is thought by some to have 
been one of the existing historical authorities con- 
sulted by Herodotus. At any rate, the extant frag- 
ments of his works show that he compiled the annals 
of the Persian war. The time at which he flourished 
is very uncertain. Passow, on insufficient grounds, 
places his era as early as 01. lxvii., Matthise as late 
as 01. lxxv. Probably the era at which he wrote 
and flourished was, during the time when Herodotus 
was pursuing his travels, 3 and, therefore, a little prior 
to the composition of his great work. He wrote on 
^Ethiopian, Persian, Grecian, Libyan, and Lampsa- 
cenian history, b and thus followed in the steps of his 
predecessor Hecatseus; but he derived much of his 
knowledge from popular and traditional sources, rather 
than from personal observation and inquiry. He was 
a chronicler (agoygcctyog) rather than an historian. 



Hellanicus, born about B.C. 496. 

Hellanicus^vas the most celebrated amongst the 
predecessors and contemporaries of Herodotus : he 
was born at Mitylene, about B.C. 496. War, which 
in his old age desolated his native country, drove him 
as an exile into Asia Minor, where he died, accord- 
ing to Lucian, at the advanced age of eighty-five. 

Dahlman, a. s. Buche s. Leben. b Suidas, s. v. 



54 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

His works were numerous and varied, on genealogy, 
history, and chronology, but nothing now remains of 
them but fragments. His style was simple and 
unadorned, but he was careless as to the sources from 
which he derived his statements, and, according to 
Thucydides, inaccurate in his chronology. His indo- 
lence in the investigation of truth led him to accept, 
without sufficient examination, popular legends and 
traditions, provided they were striking and amusing. 
Dahlman a remarks, that Hellanicus, more than any 
other historian, overlaid Italian history with Greek 
tradition, and threw it into that confused state which 
has cost modern scholars so much toil and labour. 

Herodorus of heraclea. 

The name of one more prose writer belonging to 
the same era must be mentioned, Herodorus of 
Heraclea. His works were of a mythological cha- 
racter; one of them treated of legends relating to 
Hercules, the other of the Argonautic Expedition ; 
they are said to have contained some geographical 
and historical information, but probably of no value 
or authority. 

Herodotus, born B.C. 484. 

It has already been stated, that the necessity of the 
case called forth the historian, and that all materials 

a Life of Herod, vi. 



HERODOTUS, THE FATHER OF HISTORY. 55 

previous to the Persian war, possessing any interest for 
the Greeks, belonged to the ages of tradition and 
legend. But the struggle between a brave people in 
defence of their national existence and the aggressions 
of despotism furnished just such a subject as would 
have inspired a poet, if the events had been so long- 
past as to be capable of ideal treatment. As it was, 
they required being set forth in all the array of truth- 
fulness, and set before the eyes of those who eagerly 
looked for the real facts with faithfulness and . accu- 
racy. These requirements exercised a powerful influ- 
ence in turning the abilities of Herodotus into the 
channel in which they flowed. 

Although attempts of an historical nature had been 
made in former periods, by the records of oral tradi- 
tion preserved by Herodorus of Heraclea, and the his- 
torical but ill-arranged summaries of Hellanicus, 
alluded to by Thucydides, a Herodotus was the first 
who attached to history the necessary aids of geogra- 
phy and chronology, without which, it has been said 
by Strabo, that history is a blind guide. For this 
reason, although others had written on the same sub- 
jects as himself, and even on the Persian war, b he is 
rightly termed the Father of History, as well as 
because he was the first to show that facts might be 
highly interesting without the aid of fiction. It is on 
account of this lively interest with which he invests 
his subject, that Miiller terms him the Homer of 
history. 

a Thucyd. i. 97. b Herod, vi. 55. 



hQ GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Almost the only authorities for the circumstances 

known respecting Herodotus, are the short biographical 

memoir of Suidas, and the scattered notices contained 

in his own work. He was a native of Halicarnassus, 

of good family ; his parents' names were Lyxes and 

Dryo, and he had a brother named Theodoras. His 

native city was the capital of six confederate Dorian 

states ; subsequently, like other Greek colonies, it was 

conquered by Croesus, and at length became tributary 

to Persia. Of its queen Artemisia, Herodotus, a when 

enumerating the Persian forces of Darius, expresses 

the highest admiration, on account of her spirit and 

bravery. Xerxes also highly valued her wisdom, and 

the Athenians were so annoyed that a woman should 

make war against Athens, as to offer ten thousand 

drachmae to any one who would take her alive. b To 

her care Dahlman c attributes the preservation of her 

kingdom in this unsuccessful campaign, and probably 

also the safety of the family of Herodotus, and adds, 

that he passed his youth in a peaceful home, because 

Halicarnassus did not join the Athenian confederacy 

until many years had passed away. 

Respecting the time of his birth, as well as of his 

early youth and education, we have little information ; 

the date of the former is usually given as B.C. 484 

(01. lxxiv. i). Aulus Gellius, d on the authority of 

Pamphila, who wrote in the reign of Nero, states that 

the historians Hellanicus, Herodotus, and Thucydides, 

a Herod, vii. 99. b Ibid. viii. 93, 103. 

c Dahlman. d Noct. Att. xv. 23. 



PERIOD WHEN HE FLOURISHED. 57 

were almost contemporaries, and that at the commence- 
ment of the Peloponnesian war Hellanicus was sixty- 
five years old, Herodotus fifty-three, and Thucydides 
forty. Darius, therefore, had just died, and the dis- 
astrous attempt of the Asiatic Greeks to achieve 
independence had taken place ten years previously, 
when Herodotus was born; and we know that he was 
well acquainted with the works of the logographers 
as well as with the poetical literature of Greece. He 
was evidently thoroughly imbued with the spirit of 
Homer and Hesiod, whose era he fixed at about four 
centuries before his own time; for their poems he felt 
an enthusiastic admiration, and attributed to them the 
formation of the Greek theogony. This, doubtless, 
is overstated, as these poets must have done no more 
than systematize and expand the traditions of popular 
mythology. 

The information given by Herodotus was collected 
by himself from local sources, and from personal inter- 
course with natives of those countries whose history 
he relates. To his own observation, likewise, is owing 
his geographical knowledge, which, notwithstanding 
some inaccuracies, displays habits of careful and dili- 
gent observation.* It is evident, from his works, that 
his travels were extensive, and occupied a large por- 
tion of his life. Probably from B.C. 464 to 444, that 
is, from the twentieth to the fortieth year of his age. 
Twenty of the best and most vigorous years of his 
life, and doubtless the whole of his fortune, did this 
a Herod, i. 170. 



58 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

enterprising man devote to foreign travel and to 
storing up materials for his history. 

The order of his travels it is impossible to deter- 
mine, for it must be remembered that his work is 
a history illustrated by local knowledge, and not a 
book of travels illustrated by history. It was from 
an historical point of view that he viewed every place 
which he visited ; the objects of historical interest 
attracted him ; and when in his leisure and re- 
tirement, whether at Samos, a or Halicarnassus, 5 or 
Thurii c (for so various are the statements respecting 
the place where he wrote), he digested and arranged 
the materials which he had collected, he enriched 
his history with the fruits of many years' diligent 
toil. 

There are various statements respecting the place 
at which his work was written. Suidas confers that 
honour on Samos, Lucian on Halicarnassus, Pliny on 
Thurii ; but as there can be no doubt that the prin- 
cipal part of his travels was completed before he 
wrote his book, the probability is that he wrote it 
at Thurii. 

If the nine books which he wrote are examined 
in order, it will be found that he must have travelled 
to the following parts of the world. 

He must have been well acquainted with the 
islands of the iEgean, d the coast of Asia Minor, 6 and 
all the places in the neighbourhood of his native 

a Suidas. b Lucian. c Pliny. 

d Herod, i. 24. e Ibid. ii. 44. 



TRAVELS OF HERODOTUS. 59 

city, whose skies he pronounces to be the brightest, 
and whose seasons the most genial in the world, 3 and 
he must have extended his survey as far as Lydia. b 
He must have seen Tyre and the Holy Land, where 
he found columns erected during the expedition of 
Sesostris. c When there he became acquainted with 
the rite of circumcision, d although he inaccurately 
attributes to the Egyptians its introduction amongst 
the Syrians in Palestine. He also visited Jerusalem, 
which he calls Cadytis, 6 a name evidently connected 
with the Arabic word El-kodesh (the holy), and men- 
tions the defeat and death of Josiah at Megiddo/ and 
the march of the conqueror, Pharaoh Necho, to Je- 
rusalem. He visited Mesopotamia and its rivers 
Tigris and Euphrates, the city of Babylon, and the 
site of the still more ancient city of Nineveh. g This 
site he places on the Tigris, which accords with 
modern discoveries, whether we assume with Layard 
that Nimrud is within the limits of the ancient Ni- 
neveh, or with Rawlinson, that the real site of Nine- 
veh is the mound which is said to contain the tomb 
of Jonah. With respect to Babylon, he appeals to 
the testimony of his own eyes in support of his de- 
scription of its surprising fertility in corn and barren- 
ness of trees. He describes Ecbatana, the capital 
of Media, with all the accuracy of one whose own eyes 
had seen its walls, and compares them with the circuit 

a Herod, i. 142. b Ibid. iii. 5. c Ibid. ii. 106. 

d Ibid. ii. 104. e ibid. ii. 159. f 2 Kings xxiii. 

* Ibid. i. 193. 



60 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of the walls of Athens. 3 He likewise penetrated into 
Asia as far east as Susa, and saw the royal road which 
stretched from Ephesus to Susa, and which was tra- 
versed over in three months and three days. b And 
at some time or other he travelled westward to the 
towns of Magna Graecia, and the islands of the Me- 
diterranean. 

Egypt, both Upper and Lower, and the course of 
the Nile as far as Elephantine, Arabia, to the east 
of that river, and Cyrene d to the west, he doubtless 
saw with his own eyes, although the names and de- 
scriptions of the nomad tribes of Libya, and his in- 
formation respecting Carthage, were probably derived 
from the testimony of others. Thrace and Scythia 
are described with the fidelity of an eye-witness, as 
also the Euxine and the Propontis, and from thence 
he caught a glimpse of the Palus Mseotis. Lastly, 
in Greece itself, and the islands to the west, he was 
personally acquainted with every place of historical 
interest, whether within or without the Peloponnesus, 
its oracular seats and sacred temples, its battle-fields 
and illustrious cities. 6 

The time necessarily occupied in these travels, and 
the certainty that the historian's great work was not 
written until they were finished, throws discredit on 
the story told by Lucian, that Herodotus read his 
history to the assembled Greek nation at the Olympic 
festival, and that Thucydides, then a boy, was present, 

» Herod, i. 98 ; v. 89. b Ibid. v. 52. c Ibid. ii. 74. 

d Ibid. iv. 181. e Ibid. i. 14, 20; ii. 5, 52. 



HIS LOVE OF GREEK INSTITUTIONS. 61 

and so affected with the narrative as to burst into 
tears. The Olympic festival, which would synchronise 
with the boyhood of Thucydides, is (01. lxxxi., B.C. 
456), and in that year Herodotus could only have 
been thirty-two years of age. Many arguments have 
been brought forward on both sides of the ques- 
tion, but the balance of them appears to be against 
the credibility of this recitation. The time and place, 
however, were well imagined, and the idea inge- 
niously conceived by one who professes only to write 
for amusement, and makes scarcely any pretensions 
to historical authority. 

If there is any part of his work which it is probable 
that he recited at this great national festival of the 
Greeks, it is the history of their struggles and triumphs 
over Persia. This portion may have excited the 
enthusiasm to which the tradition alludes, and have 
been the original story with which he afterwards in- 
terwove all the various knowledge resulting from his 
long and active life. An examination of his work 
proves that he intended this for his great object, and 
that every thing else is subordinate to this end. 
A love of Greece and her free institutions was the 
prevailing feature of his mind. This feeling seems 
to have been fostered and strengthened by a com- 
parison of Greek customs, laws, and constitutions, with 
those of all other countries which he visited. Although 
he could appreciate excellence wherever he discovered 
it, still Greece had no rival in his affections, and his 
admiration for Greek political principles, especially 



62 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

those of Athens, subjected him to the unfounded charge 
of one-sided prejudice in its favour. This accusation is 
found in a treatise which is attributed, though pro- 
bably incorrectly, to Plutarch ; a but this, like other 
calumnies brought against him, are now disregarded, 
whilst modern researches and investigations tend to 
establish on a firmer basis his character for impar- 
tiality, and his authority as an historian. 

One can easily believe that some episodes or 
portions of his history were at times related by the 
author himself to a choice circle of admiring hearers. 
His simple and natural truthfulness, and, at the same 
time, his flowing garrulity; the negligent carelessness 
with which he breaks off the thread of his main story, 
and runs off into a digression, remind one of the old 
story-tellers. We can readily picture to our ima- 
gination an old man, full of his story, amusing a con- 
gregation of listeners, just as a story-teller in Italy in 
the present day will gather around him a little band, 
who will hang upon his lips with mute attention ; 
but it is plain that this is perfectly consistent with 
the idea that the work, as a whole, was composed 
in the later years of his life, when he had sought 
rest from the weariness of voyages by sea and land. 

Then he delighted to look back into the past, to 
call to remembrance the wonders he had seen, and 
to draw upon these copious stores of a retentive 
memory in order to perfect that work which would 
bear his name down to posterity. 
a De malig. Her. 



HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH SOPHOCLES. 63 

Passages have been quoted a to prove the proba- 
bility that his work was completed at least in Magna 
Grsecia. He illustrates the figure of the Crimea by 
comparing it with Iapygia. The history of the phy- 
sician Democedes he must have learned in Italy ; 
and, lastly, when Clisthenes, King of Sicyon, invited 
all the most distinguished Greeks to compete for 
the honour of his daughter's hand, Herodotus men- 
tions first the candidate who came from Sybaris. 

During the early part of his life, probably for more 
than thirty years, the fixed residence of Herodotus, 
when not engaged in travelling, was at Halicarnassus. 
When his uncle, Panyasis, the epic poet, was put to 
death by Lygdamis, the tyrant of that city, Herodotus 
fled to Samos. b He thus, from residing in the country 
which received him as an exile, became an Ionian, 
and learned the dialect in which he wrote. His 
attachment to Athens, which is so observable in his 
writings, arose from the constant intercourse subsist- 
ing between Samos and that city, but more especially 
from his friendship with Sophocles. Sophocles (b.c. 
440) was appointed strategus, and sent with Pericles 
to carry on the Samian war, and is said to have 
composed an ode to Herodotus whilst engaged in that 
campaign. In this war the political bias of Hero- 
dotus would be entirely on the side of the Athenians, 
and the liberal politicians, Pericles and Sophocles. 
The Samian war was a war of opinion, and the Athe- 

a Dahlman, iii. ; iy. 15, 99 ; iii. 131, 137 ; v. 44 ; vi. 21, 127. 
b Suidas, s. v. 



64 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

nian forces were supporting the cause of democracy 
against the aristocratic party. 

It is probable that, after the taking of Samos, a 
Herodotus left that island, and returned to Halicar- 
nassus, where he was one of those who succeeded in 
liberating his native city from the tyranny of Lyg- 
damis. His sympathy with Athenian politics, which 
were now in the ascendancy, owing to the influence 
of Pericles, led him to migrate to Athens ; for, accord- 
ing to his own testimony, he was probably there at 
the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. b There he 
resided as a ^roizog, honoured and respected, until, 
at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, he 
joined the party of colonists which migrated to Thurii. 

It is not probable that after this period he travelled 
much, for his knowledge of the geography of western 
Europe is far less accurate than that which was ac- 
quired in his Oriental travels. For example, he as- 
serts that Sardinia is the greatest of all islands, an 
error into which he would not have fallen had he 
himself visited it. 

A clear proof, also, that he did not travel in Italy 
far from home, is, that not only he does not men- 
tion any of the principal states which now began 
to be of importance in Roman history, but he 
appears ignorant of the existence of Rome itself, 
although her power was already widely established 
amongst the nations of Italy. That Herodotus was 
deeply imbued with the poetic literature of Greece, 
a b.c. 439. b Herod, v. 77. 



HERODOTUS IMITATES SOPHOCLES. 65 

has been already stated ; and the resemblance which 
lias been traced in many places to passages in the 
tragedies of Sophocles, has caused it to be a general 
opinion that the dramatic poet derived some of his 
sentiments from the historian. Mr. Donaldson, 3 how- 
ever, has incontestably proved that, instead of this 
being the case, the admiration which Herodotus felt 
for Greece and Greek literature, led him to adopt the 
thoughts of Sophocles, and that the prose of the 
former is a paraphrase of the poetry of the latter. 
The passages in which these parallelisms occur are 
precisely those in which it is far more probable that 
the historian would have copied the poet, than the 
poet have borrowed from the historian. b They are, in 
most cases, gnomic or proverbial sentences, which 
are characteristic of Greek poetry generally, and 
especially of a dramatic poet who felt that his mis- 
sion was to be a moral instructor ; and poetry is the 
natural language of the proverb, prose its paraphrase. 
The numerous Greek proverbial sayings which are 
scattered throughout the works of Herodotus, prove 
that he drew largely from the copious stores of moral 
and political wisdom contained in the gnomic poets : 
it is, therefore, far more probable that he borrowed 
from Sophocles likewise, than that Sophocles should 
have versified his prose, d and thus have formed the only 

a SeePhilol. Soc. Trans, p. 163. 
b See Antig. 930; Herod, iii. 119. 
c See ex.gr. i. 8, 86 ; i. 207 ; iii. 38, 72, 127 : iv. H9. 
d See vi. 1 ; vii. 9, 10, 46 : viii. 3, 6, &c 

VOL. II. F 



66 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

exception. They, moreover, occur in those incidents 
which are of more than doubtful historical accuracy, 
but which are introduced as embellishments, to give a 
romantic interest to the general narrative. They are 
cases in which he combines the skill of the poet with 
the spirit of the historian, and gives a life and reality 
to his scenes, by introducing in his details that veri- 
similitude which is often more natural and credible 
than truth itself. 

Throughout the whole of the history of Herodotus, 
the poetic talent is clearly visible, which makes us 
forget that he is not a native Ionian, but that this 
nurse of the picturesque in art and literature was only 
the country of his adoption. His work is a complete 
epic in its structure ; its subject, one complete and 
harmonious whole — the triumph of Greece over Persia. 
All its other parts are, historically considered, digres- 
sions ; but, poetically, episodes. They do not appear 
interruptions, but illustrations, and resting places for 
the mind, from which it returns with fresh ardour to 
the original thread of the story. They are sometimes 
like the houses of entertainment which a traveller 
meets with in his journey, and in which he falls in 
with natives of other lands, ready to communicate 
their knowledge, and to enliven him with their stock 
of anecdotes and information. At other times, they 
resemble objects of interest and curiosity, or prospects 
of striking beauty, which tempt him gladly to leave 
for a time the road which he is pursuing, although, 
after having wandered for a time, he is by no means 



INTRODUCTION OF DIGRESSIONS. 67 

indisposed to return and pursue his journey. Few 
could have read these nine books, so appropriately 
distinguished by the names of the Muses, without 
being delighted with his digressions, and being struck 
with the natural way in which he introduces them. 

The following sketch of the method which he pur- 
sues, will be sufficient to prove this assertion. 3 He 
assumes the traditional existence of bitter hostility 
between Europe and Asia in the earliest times. The 
stories of Io, Medea, and Helen are examples of this 
feud in the mythical period. It was first manifested 
in historical times by Croesus King of Lydia. A 
history, therefore, of this kingdom, is necessary to his 
plan. But Lydia was conquered by Cyrus King of 
Persia. He is thus led to trace the successive 
dynasties of Assyria, Media, and Persia, the steps by 
which the ancient empire of Babylon, and the whole 
of Asia Minor, were reduced under the power of 
Persia. The history and antiquities of Egypt are 
naturally suggested by the expedition of Cambyses, as 
that of Scythia and northern Europe is by that of 
Darius. The conflict between Persia and Cyrene 
leads to an account of that city and its neighbourhood, 
as well as of the rest of Africa. His less important, 
but not less entertaining digressions, will be found to 
branch off as naturally out of the main channel of his 
narrative. 

With respect to his authority as an historian, there 
are characteristic features which, independent of the 

a See Smith's Diet. s. v. 

f 2 



68 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

support which his observations have received from 
subsequent discoveries, forbids the reader to doubt for 
a moment. Not being what is termed a philosophical 
historian, he has no theory to defend, or particular 
views to support. He gives no colouring to the 
events which he narrates, by any critical or political 
reflections of his own. He never puts forward his 
own views on these points, except on one solitary 
occasion. 3 One circumstance follows another so natu- 
rally that they bear evident marks of being successive 
links in one chain of historical cause and effect. His 
innate truthfulness displays itself on all occasions. 
He constantly distinguishes what he relates on the 
authority of others, from what he has become ac- 
quainted with as an eye-witness ; and although he 
evidently delights in telling a story, and, as is the 
case with all storytellers, his anecdotes are rather 
founded on fact than the facts themselves ; still the 
groundwork is so easily distinguished from the embel- 
lishment, that no one can fail to separate the romance 
from the reality. 

Attached although Herodotus was to his adopted 
fellow-countrymen, and to the cause of Greek liberty, 
his whole work exhibits a candid and equitable temper. 
He shows no bitterness against Darius or the Persians, 
although he cannot gloss over the Oriental arrogance 
of Xerxes. His exaggeration of the numbers of the 
invading army was not wilful, but an error into which 
a traveller was likely to fall, who knew the vast 
* Herod, iii. 80. 



SIMPLICITY OF HIS STYLE. 69 

number of natives and tribes and populous cities 
which constituted it. The glorious battle of Platsea 
is described in such simple and unostentatious lan- 
guage, that the admiration for the Greeks which the 
reader feels, is the result of the incidents related, and 
not of any advocacy or oratorical artifice on the part 
of the historian. He does not attempt to conceal the 
treachery of those Greeks who medized, a the waver- 
ing conduct of others, the petty enmities in which 
some indulged, 5 and the inclination of the masses for 
submission to the Persians at the commencement of 
the war. c 

His style bears the impress of his mind ; it is simple 
and natural. It flows on in an easy and gentle current. 
He takes no pains in constructing his sentences. 
They might be cut off almost at any point, or con- 
tinued for another clause, without detriment to sense 
or- grammar. It is a specimen of what Aristotle d 
terms the Xs|/V ugopivq, or loose style, as opposed to the 
Xe|/V zureffrgctfAfjb'evji, or periodic ; and the former is as 
characteristic of the straightforward but unreflecting 
narrator, as the close, careful, and artificial con- 
struction of the latter is suitable to express the 
thoughtfulness of the critical and philosophical his- 
torian. 

In the same way, it is due to the character of his 
mind, that the sentiments of his historical charac- 
ters are conveyed in the unrestrained conversational 

a Herod, vii. 132. b Ibid. viii. 30. 

c Ibid. vii. 138. d Rhet. iii. 9. 



70 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

style of dialogue, rather than in the formal argu- 
mentative orations which we find in the history of 
Thucydides. 

Herodotus was superstitious, and entertained low 
notions respecting the feelings of the Deity towards 
the human race. He was not in advance of his age, 
Avhich attributed to God the human vices of envy and 
jealousy. Traces of this belief are found in the story 
of Amasis and Polycrates, in the sentiments addressed 
by Artabanus to Xerxes, and elsewhere. a But not- 
withstanding this, he was a religious man, and had a 
deep feeling of veneration for the Deity. He was 
impressed with a belief in a superintending Provi- 
dence, and a moral Governor of the universe, who 
ordered all things in accordance with his will. 

GEOGRAPHY OF HERODOTUS. 

The geography of Herodotus has been treated of at 
length by Rennel, Heeren, Niebuhr, Dahlman, and 
others; but in a work like this only its principal 
features can be noticed, and that in a brief and 
cursory manner. 

Tn examining it, we must not expect to find a 
regular system. He was an historian, and not a geo- 
grapher. He was conscious of the indispensable 
necessity of geography, in order to render history 
intelligible; but still it is subsidiary, and therefore 
subordinate to his historical investigations. Besides 

a Herod, iii. 40 : vii. 10, 46. 



DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AND WATER. 71 

this, it must be remembered that the science of 
geography was unknown, that his accounts are the 
earliest on record, and that, in the absence of the art 
of surveying, all his conclusions respecting form, 
distance, relative position, and magnitude, are derived 
from the experience and evidence of the unassisted 
external senses. Hence, with some few exceptions, 
his geography consists of the positions which different 
countries occupy with relation to each other, without 
any attempt to determine accurately distances or 
dimensions. Yet, wonderful to say, Ptolemy, who 
flourished six centuries later, knew little more than he 
did. In some instances his knowledge surpasses that 
of Strabo and Pliny, and in many, notwithstanding his 
errors, modern discovery has tended to establish his 
character for accuracy. 

The following was his theory of the distribution of 
land and water on the surface of the earth. Rejecting 
as absurd the idea that the land was a round disc, as 
from the lathe of the turner, a as well as the Homeric 
and Platonic belief, that the ocean was a river, b he 
asserted that the land (jj yyj) is one vast continent, the 
shores of which are washed by the ocean, c on the 
west by the Atlantic, which forms one with the 
Southern or Red Sea; and on the north by the 
Northern Sea. It must be remembered, that by the 
term Red Sea he does not designate the Arabian Gulf, 
but the whole sea on the south of Asia and south-east 
of Africa; whilst by the Atlantic he understood the 
a Herod, iv. 36. b Ibid. ii. 23. c Ibid. i. 202. 



72 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

whole expanse of ocean outside the Pillars of Her- 
cules. Whether Europe is bounded by the sea along 
its entire northern limit, and on its eastern boun- 
dary, and what forms the eastern boundary of India, 
he does not profess to know for certain. a All beyond 
India to the east is waste. This world-wide continent 
is divided into the three which are each commonly 
called by that name, viz. Europe, Asia and Africa. b 
The Phasis he makes the boundary between Europe 
and Asia, rather than the Tanais ; whilst Africa is 
divided from Asia, not by the Isthmus of Suez, but 
by the river Nile. He believed that Europe extended 
across all the northern portion of the earth from east 
to west, and was therefore larger than Asia and Africa 
together. In this error he was followed by subse- 
quent geographers. 

The comparative dimensions of the three conti- 
nents, according to Pliny, are still more incorrect, 
and a nearer approach to the truth was not made 
until the time of Ptolemy. The consequence of thus 
cramping the dimensions of Asia is, that he makes 
Asia Minor and the peninsula of Arabia far too 
narrow. It is remarkable that he knew the Caspian 
Sea to be a lake, whilst so long afterwards, at the 
period of Alexander s visit to its shores, the observa- 
tions made arrived at a different result, and determined 
that it was a gulf of the Northern Ocean. The land 
farthest to the west with which he was acquainted 
was the coast of Cornwall ; he speaks of it as abound- 
a Herod, iv. 45. b Ibid. 



ERRONEOUS AND VAGUE VIEWS. 73 

ing in tin-mines, and as forming a portion of the 
group now called the Scilly Isles, which he includes 
with it under the general title of Cassiterides, or Tin- 
Islands/ 

As his observation led him erroneously to imagine 
that Europe nearly balanced Asia and Libya, he 
assumed a similar analogy to exist between the Da- 
nube and the Nile. He imagined that the former 
was equal in length to the latter, b and that the one 
divided Europe down the middle, as the other divided 
Libya, and that the mouths of both were on the same 
meridian of longitude. d He believed also that the 
sea of Azor is nearly as large as the Euxirie, 6 and 
that its north-west coast ran in a due northerly direc- 
tion from the Bosphorus ; f nor was he acquainted with 
the fact that the Crimea is a peninsula. 8 Of India 
and its extent, his ideas were vague and indistinct. 
The peninsular portion of it is probably alluded to, 
where he speaks of a country inhabited by blacks 
stretching very far to the south of Persia. 

Of Africa the knowledge of Herodotus was greater 
than that of Ptolemy, far greater than that of Strabo. 
He had heard from the natives of Cyrenaica that a 
great river existed in the interior, running from west 
to east, which some, with whom he was inclined to 
agree, supposed to be a portion of the Nile. h This 
was doubtless the Niger ; and although, from the 

a Herod, iii. 115. b Ibid. ii. 33. c Ibid. iv. 49. 

d Ibid. ii. 34. e Ibid. i. 86. f Ibid. i. 99. 

« Ibid. iv. 99. h Ibid. ii. 28. 



74 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ascertained elevation of the intermediate country, 
modern science has decided that any connexion 
between the Nile and the Niger is improbable, yet 
the question has even yet not been completely deter- 
mined. He knew also that Africa had been circum- 
navigated, and that it stretched far to the south of 
the Niger and the Nile. a He derived this know- 
ledge from the testimony, first, of the Phoenicians, and 
next of the Carthaginian navigators. The former 
proved the correctness of their story, and the fact of 
their having crossed the equator by their declaration 
that they had the sun on their right hand. Herodotus 
confesses that he cannot give credit to this tale. In 
fact, the state of science did not enable him to under- 
stand the phenomenon. 

Such was the geographical knowledge which the 
father of history derived from his limited opportunities. 
Credulous as to what was told him, his veracity, 
wherever his own observation is concerned, is unim- 
peachable. His errors are not those of culpable 
ignorance, but the unavoidable result of his age being 
one in which science was in its infancy. For this 
reason he was ignorant that snow was found at high 
elevations in warm climates. b He attempted to 
account for the overflow of the Nile on grounds which 
are philosophically untenable, and could not under- 
stand how the circumnavigators of Africa had the sun 
on their right hand. It is not improbable that when he 

a Herod, iv. 42, 43. b Ibid. ii. 22. c Ibid. ii. 24. 



ERRONEOUS AND VAGUE VIEWS 75 

stated that the sun in India is vertical before midday, 
he may have been recording the fact communicated 
to him by others, that when the sun reaches the 
meridian in India, a it is not yet noon in the countries 
to the westward. 

a Herod, iii. 104. 



76 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Thucydides, born about B.C. 471. 

PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY. THUCYDIDES ITS INVENTOR. HIS LIFE. 

EXTENT OP HIS HISTORY. THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE EIGHTH 

BOOK EXAMINED. — SUMMARY OF GREEK HISTORY IN THE FIRST 

BOOK. STORY OF HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGITON. THE PLAN OF 

HIS HISTORY. DIGRESSIONS. CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT. — 

THE ADVANTAGE OF HIS BEING A CONTEMPORARY HISTORIAN. 

THE SPEECHES OF THUCYDIDES. THEIR VALUE. THEIR STYLE. 

TRUTHFULNESS IN HIS GENERAL NARRATIVE. GRAPHIC POWER. 

HIS CHIEF INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES. HERODOTUS AND THUCY- 
DIDES COMPARED. 

We have now arrived at the period in which history 
has assumed a more advanced and accomplished form. 
Its aim is now no longer simple amusement, but 
instruction. 3 Its incidents are viewed as conveying 
lessons of practical wisdom to the statesman, when 
commented on and grouped together under certain 
general heads by the comprehensive mind and general- 
izing powers of the philosopher. They are considered 
as developments of the principles of moral action, 
and as illustrating man's social and political relations. 
This is the highest and noblest task of history, and 
worthily was it performed by the thoughtful inventor 
a Thucyd. i. 22. 



BIOGRAPHY OF THUCYDIDES. 77 

of philosophical history, Thucydides. In modern times, 
his example has been wisely followed ; philosophical 
history is appreciated as it deserves. . The mere 
annalist is no longer considered as fulfilling the whole 
duty of the historian. But it must be confessed that 
for the two invaluable qualities of thouglftfulness and 
suggestiveness, no historian has ever surpassed Thucy- 
dides. The intrinsic value of his great work, which 
he modestly styles a compilation (ffyyy^a^), fully 
accounts for its being imperishable ; and the verdict 
of posterity has stamped it as that which he intended 
it to be — an everlasting possession (zr^cc eg aV-1 

Thucydides was an Athenian citizen, the son of 
Olorus, 3 belonging to the Attic borough Halimus. 
The date of his birth is not quite certain, but it was 
probably B.C. 471, b or B.C. 472. c Whether he was 
a pupil of the orator Antiphon, is doubtful, but the 
assertion is made by Suidas, and supported by other 
authorities. 01 In the year b. c. 424, he was entrusted 
with the command of the Athenian fleet fet Thesos, 
and whilst there was summoned to the relief of 
Amphipolis against the Spartan general, Brasidas. 
Unfortunately, he did not arrive until too late. Am- 
phipolis had surrendered on the very day, in the evening 
of which he arrived at the mouth *of the Strymori.1 
The Athenians frequently visited ill-success on the 

a Time. i. 1 ; iv. 404. I 



b Clinton's Fasti Hellenici ; Si^das, s. v. Antiph. 

c Aul. Gell. xv. 23, quoted by Clinton. , 

d Matthise, History of Literature. e fhuc. iv. 102. I 











*e»*.V* 



78 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

part of their generals as severely as they would in- 
competence. The demagogue, Cleon, was now at the 
zenith of his popularity, and being both politically and 
personally hostile to Thucydides, took advantage of 
this occasion to excite the popular feeling against him. 
Thucydides, therefore, went into voluntary exile, a and 
resided in places where he was safe, owing to the 
ascendancy of oligarchal and Peloponnesian influence, 
during a period of twenty years. 

Every year of this eventful period — the most im- 
portant which Greece has ever known b — was probably 
occupied in chronicling each incident as it occurred, 
and whilst it was fresh in his memory, and produced 
the most vivid impressions. His exile in Thrace 
probably furnished him with the opportunity of di- 
gesting his materials, and to this episode in his life 
we owe his history; for the arrangement of his 
materials and the composition of part of it was doubt- 
less the employment of his long banishment. It was 
not, however, completed until the war was finished ; 
for he mentions the duration of it, although his history 
is broken off before he could complete his original 
design. 

There are many conflicting statements respecting 
his return to his native country and his death. But 
the probability is, that, when peace was concluded with 
Lacedsemon, B.C. 404, a decree was passed to permit the 
return of all exiles, and that shortly after this Thucy- 
dides came back to Athens. Pausanias tells us that 
a Thucyd. v. 26. b Ibid. i. 21. 



AUTHENTICITY OF EIGHTH BOOK. ,9 

he died by the hand of an assassin, and this event is 
placed by one authority as early as B.C. 401, a by 
another as late as 01. xcvii. 2 (B.C. 391 v 

The anonymous life of him states that he died of 
disease, and was buried in Coele near Athens, and that 
a simple pillar marks the spot with this inscription — 

•'• Here lies Thucvdides son of Oloris the Halimusian." 

The history of Thucydides. which was designed to 
comprise a complete account of this important war, 
is only continued as far as the middle of the twenty- 
first year (B.C. 411). The words with which it con- 
cludes, seem to imply that it was not abruptly inter- 
rupted, but that from some cause or other he 
voluntarily brought it to a termination. u When," 
he says. " the winter after this summer ends, the 
twenty-first year will be complete.*' 

The eighth, or concluding book, is distinguished 
from the preceding ones by the absence of speeches — 
those reflections of the historian's mind which form so 
valuable and interesting portion of his great work. 
This circumstance, coupled with an imaginary inferi- 
ority in point of stvle. has led to much doubt beino* 
cast upon its genuineness. Some have ignorantlv 
ascribed it to Xenophon, whose style is totally dif- 
ferent from that of this book : others to a daughter, 
who. together with a son named Timotheus. survived 
him. There is, however, no external evidence against 

- Kriiger. ii. <:1. Leben des Thuk. 
b 3iauhice. History of Literature. 



80 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

its genuineness, whilst the internal evidence is in its 
favour. The style of language and the tone of thought 
are as vigorous as in the rest of his work ; the instances 
of carelessness are scarcely more frequent than every 
reader of Thucydides is accustomed to expect, and if 
they were, this would only prove that less elaborate 
care was bestowed on the concluding portion of a 
work, for the non-completion of which we can imagine 
no other cause than want of time and opportunity. 
The same haste will account for the absence of 
speeches, which are evidently the most thoughtful 
and most highly- wrought portions of his other books. 
But even of these some germs are discernible, which 
most probably, if time had allowed, would have been 
worked out and perfected. 3 

There is nothing in the whole range of Greek 
literature so important to the historical student as 
the brief summary of early Greek history contained 
in the first book. Although not free entirely from 
the trammels of mythological tradition, the author 
gives its deserved value to poetical testimony, and 
prepares the way for a more philosophical interpre- 
tation quite consistent with subsequent theories and 
discoveries. These few chapters are eminently sug- 
gestive ; they are a text for the philosophical historian 
to expand and dilate upon ; they furnish the materials 
and ground-work for the construction of all sound 
views respecting the origin and progress of Greek 
civilization. A remarkable specimen of the able 
a See Thucyd. c. 27, 45, 46, 76. 



ARRANGEMENT OF HIS HISTORY. 81 

manner in which he handles popular traditions and 
recollections, is furnished in the discussion respecting 
the story of Harmodius and Aristogiton. It is a 
masterly piece of historical criticism. 

Like Herodotus, Thucydides considers his subject 
as one complete whole. Hence, after the introduction 
to which allusion has been made, the Peloponnesian 
war is the one subject which employs his thoughts 
and his pen. To this narrative the digressions which 
are necessary to illustrate it form episodes. One is 
the treachery of Pausanias, a which led to the appoint- 
ment of the Athenians, by the unanimous voice of 
the allies, to the high position of iWyivorupiui, or trea- 
surers of Greece; another, the rise and progress of 
the Athenian supremacy. 6 

The arrangement of his history is somewhat singular; 
not only is it chronological, but the successive events 
are accurately assigned to the summer or winter half- 
year in which they occurred. The only inconvenience 
resulting from this is, that the scene is continually 
shifting, and thus the interest is divided and the 
mind sometimes feels distracted by the variety of 
subjects to which it is compelled in succession to give 
its attention. 

There are, on the other hand, manifest advantages 
connected with this method of chronological computa- 
tion. Each campaign in this war generally took place 
in the summer, and therefore the periods of action 
and rest were thus distinguished. It was, too, the 
a Thucyd. i. 128-134. b Ibid. i. 89-117. 

VOL. II. G 



82 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

only plan which could be equally suitable to all 
Greece, because the names of the months differed 
in the different states of Greece. Computation by 
Olympiads was not yet adopted, for although Thucy- 
dides a and Xenophon b each in two instances define 
an event by the Olympiad in which it took place, the 
first historian who introduced this practice was Timseus, 
of Sicily, B.C. 264, from which time his example was 
generally followed. 

Thucydides lived during the period of which he 
related the history, and this is sometimes considered 
objectionable, because of the danger which exists lest 
the historian should be influenced by his own political 
bias, and by the party prejudices of his times. This 
was especially to be feared in the historian of a war 
such as the Peloponnesian. It was essentially a war 
of race, and therefore of political principle. 

Whatever the overt causes were which led to it, Thucy- 
dides expressly informs us, it arose from the jealousy 
felt by Lacedaemon of the overweening power of Athens. 
The liberty of Greece and the tyranny of Athens were 
the Spartan war-cry. It was a contest between Ionian 
and Dorian, those ancient and implacable foes; between 
oligarchy and democracy; between the maintenance 
of things as they were, and progress. But the impar- 
tiality of Thucydides was uninfluenced by this state of 
things. He does not conceal his political sentiments. 
He honestly avows them, but he does not swerve from 
historic truth. From all this strife of opinions he 
a Thucyd. iii. 8 ; v. 49. b Hell. i. 2 ; ii. 3. 



IMPARTIALITY OF THUCYDIDES. S3 

stands aloof; be seems to occupy an eminence from 
which he can calmly and coolly survey the opposing 
parties, whilst his own feelings are beyond the reach 
of the storm which rages beneath his feet. He saw, 
as every wise and philosophical man must have seen. 
the fearful evils of unbridled democracy, and there- 
fore, his bias was on the side of putting some rat: 
limit to progress ; but he could., nevertheless, admire 
the policy of Pericles, and candidly express his appro- 
bation. He believed that this great statesman was a 
friend only to constitutional liberty ; that he knew 
what were the passions of an Athenian mob. and. 
therefore, never became a demagogue ; that he owed 
his influence not to pandering to their passions, but to 
his uprightness and wisdom. 

The authority, then, of Thucydides is invaluable. 
because he possessed all the knowledge which per- 
sonal observation could alone supply, and that honesty 
which could not be corrupted, or even blinded, by 
party politics, or superficial and prejudiced views. 

The most striking feature of the history of Thucy- 
dides consists in the speeches which he attributes to 
the principal characters. In what light they are to be 
regarded as historical documents will best be seen 
from his own words : — ;i As to the speeches of each 
individual, either before the war. or when engaged in 
it. it would have been difficult to remember accurately, 
either what I myself heard, or what others reported 
to me. I have, therefore, reported their speeches ac- 
cording as I thought most suitable to the speaker and 



84 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

to the occasion, keeping, however, as closely as possi- 
ble to the general sense of what they actually said." a 

However nearly, therefore, the speeches of Thucy- 
dides may have represented the sentiments of those 
who are supposed to have delivered them, there can 
be little doubt that the historian made them the 
occasion of conveying his own views, or the views of 
the two great opposing parties, respecting the political 
complexion of affairs. 

Allowing himself, therefore, the freedom which he 
claims, it is scarcely possible to conceive that his own 
views, or the prevalent ideas of the times, would not 
be introduced in them ; for this reason they are so 
valuable, we have in them a just picture of the politics 
of the day, together with a commentary on them, by 
a sound -judging and impartial mind. And what a 
strange and yet faithful picture is drawn in many of 
them of Athenian inconsistency ! We see vanity and 
self-conceit, side by side with noble-minded liberality, 
and absence of all jealousy against foreigners ; cring- 
ing submission to demagogues, joined with a power of 
appreciating statesman-like wisdom ; firm attachment 
to liberty, and cruel tyranny towards their subject 
states ; utter disregard for the principles of justice, if 
they interfered with selfish aggrandisement, and yet 
a patriotic anxiety for the honour of their native 
country. 

Cicero says, b respecting the speeches of Thucydides, 
" They contain so many obscure and recondite senti- 
a Thucyd. i. 22. b Cic. Orat. ix. 



SPEECHES OF THUCYDIDES. 85 

ments, that they can with difficulty be understood." 
This very obscurity arises from their deep philosophi- 
cal character. The historian's copiousness of ideas 
far exceeds that of his language, and the rapidity with 
which his thoughts succeed one another, surpasses his 
power of expressing them. Containing as they do, 
in many instances, the germs of thought, rather than 
its lucid and perfect development, they are more 
suited for the calm and deliberate study of a reader 
than for delivery, as it would have been almost im- 
possible to have followed his involved arguments and 
subtle reasoning. They contain little of rhetorical 
embellishment ; here and there a striking and poetical 
metaphor adds beauty to the style as well as point 
to the argument. Antithesis is the figure which he 
most frequently uses, as may be expected in the case 
of an author whose principal characteristic is concise- 
ness and brevity, but even in these there is not much 
variety. One for example, namely, that between 
\oyog and 'igyov (word and deed) is repeated almost 
incessantly. 

According to the theory laid down by Aristotle, 
the proof from argument holds the chief and most 
prominent place ; his object is conviction rather than 
persuasion, and thus his speeches, consistently with 
the tenor of his whole work, perform the promise 
which he holds out in the introduction, namely, that 
his work is composed as an everlasting possession for 
future ages, rather than a mere prize composition 
intended for the gratification of the moment. 



86 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Written before oratory was reduced to an art, 
they nevertheless furnish the most copious illustrations 
of all the rules of art. They are strictly artistic, 
without being artificial. A comparison of them with 
Aristotle's "Treatise on Rhetoric" will show that 
almost every one of the principles which he lays down, 
may be illustrated by an example drawn from the 
speeches of Thucydides. 

As they are the orations of statesmen and generals, 
they are, with very few exceptions, of the deliberative 
kind ; one, the funeral oration pronounced by Pericles 
over those who fell in the first year of the war, is a 
specimen of demonstrative oratory or panegyric ; a and 
the speeches of Cleon and Diodotus, on the condem- 
nation of the Mityleneans, are partly of the judicial 
kind, although the question is principally argued as 
one of political expediency. 

The style, moreover, is to a certain extent varied 
according to circumstances ; for example, when a Spar- 
tan is represented as speaking, the concise mode of 
expression is retained, which is characteristic of that 
people ; but, nevertheless, though graphic and charac- 
teristic, the style of Thucydides himself may still be 
recognized. 

Throughout the historical narrative, a strict love of 
truth is visible, together with habits of patient and 
laborious investigation. It is clear that he omitted 
no means of ascertaining the truth of what was said, 
and that when aware of the facts, he would not garble 
8 Thucyd. ii. 35-46. 



HIS MINUTE EXACTNESS. ^7 

or misrepresent them, but only array them in an inter- 
esting garb by his skilful treatment. 

" What I have written,"" he says, "is founded not 
on mere reports or notions of my own, but on a 
personal knowledge, wherever it was possible, and in 
other cases on a laborious and accurate examination 
of the testimony of others." The fact that he was 
the first historian who paid attention to chronological 
arrangement, shows the high value which he set on 
historical accuracy ; and the unaffected brevity of his 
style proves that all he cared for was to state what he 
saw. or heard, or thought, without embellishment of 
lauguage or unnecessary amplification. 

And yet this brevity and conciseness did not pro- 
ceed, in his case, from a deficiency in descriptive, or 
graphic power; he possessed enough of imaginative 
power to have invested dry bare facts with the most 
thrilling interest. But his minute exactness produces 
as much effect as the most highly coloured and poetical 
description. The details of the plague at Athens, with 
all its sad moral and physical results, are as affecting as 
a poem, and have furnished materials for poems. His 
talents for description are again remarkably exhibited 
in his delineations of the operations during the siege 
of Platsea, b and the methods taken by the besieged to 
effect their escape ; and the same talent is observable, 
perhaps to a still greater extent, in his narrative of 
the disastrous Sicilian expedition. 

But the intellectual qualities, in which he has sel- 
Thucyd. i. 22. Ibid. ii. 75. 






88 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

dom been equalled, are moral wisdom and political 
sagacity. His knowledge of human nature ; his intelli- 
gent quickness, similar to that which he describes as 
being possessed by Themistocles ; his intuitive per- 
ception of the motives which actuate either individuals 
or bodies of men; his keen observation of the different 
shades of party feeling, and the principles of Greek 
politics, render his work full of instruction for the 
moral and political student in all ages. This union 
of moral and political wisdom with descriptive power, 
renders the pictures which he draws of the demora- 
lization which prevailed in Greek society so dark and 
tragical. With what a masterly hand he traces step 
by step this downward course a when the plague 
devastated Athens ! The imminent danger which 
threatened all, concentrated all men's thoughts upon 
themselves ; every other tie was forgotten ; the nearest 
and dearest relatives died deserted and unassisted; 
even the reverence for the dead, which exercised so 
strong an influence over the Greek mind, existed no 
longer ; the sentiment of veneration in so important a 
form once destroyed, the fear of God soon ceased, and 
the principle upon which all acted was, " Let us eat 
and drink, for to-morrow we die." 

In describing the Corcyrean sedition, 5 he is not con- 
tent with relating the horrible atrocities which took 
place in this bloody conflict between the oligarchal 
and democratical parties, his philosophical mind dis- 
cerned the causes which produced it ; the breaking up 
a Thucyd. ii. 52-53. •> Ibid. iii. 81. 



CORRUPTION OF MORAL PRINCIPLE IN GREECE. 89 

of moral principle which had already taken place 
throughout Greece, and which afterwards, in other 
states, produced similar atrocities. In the true spirit 
of a philosopher, he points out the indications which 
even language presented of this social disorganization : 
" The common acceptation of words," 51 he says, " was 
arbitrarily altered ; inconsiderate rashness was consi- 
dered manliness and esprit-de-cwps ; prudent caution, 
a mere cloak for cowardice ; calm judgment, nothing 
else but idleness ; mad violence was accounted spirit ; 
to concert measures with caution, and without com- 
mitting oneself, was thought to be a mere fair excuse 
for tergiversation." 

His far-seeing mind was aware how deeply rooted, 
and widely extended, social and political mischief had 
become ; that the ties of party, and of political parti- 
zanship, were held to be stronger than those of kin- 
dred ; faction had taken the place of patriotism ; to 
revenge an injury was thought sweeter than not to 
have suffered one ; oaths were binding only so long as 
suited the convenience of those who swore them ; 
knavery was called cleverness, and honesty simplicity ; 
and hence men became proud of the latter and 
ashamed of the former. Thus moral corruption in 
every form prevailed, and sincerity, which is the prin- 
cipal quality of noble natures, was first ridiculed, and 
then disappeared. 

It is worthy of remark that Thucydides strictly 
confines himself to his subject ; absorbed in the war 
* Thucyd. iii. 82, 83. 



90 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

without, he gives us but little information of the state 
of things within the walls of Athens, except such 
matters of public interest as were connected with the 
external history. But during this period, many im- 
portant moral influences were being brought to bear 
upon the Athenian mind. Socrates was daily teaching 
his lessons of moral wisdom in the public thorough- 
fares and places of resort, throughout the crowded 
city ; not, like the sophists, only to the rich and noble, 
but to the masses of the people. The tragic poets 
were annually fulfilling their office of public instruc- 
tion, and thus furnishing matter for reflection and 
conversation to their countrymen during the rest of 
the "year ; and comedy, like the periodical literature of 
our own day, was lashing the follies and vices of indi- 
viduals, exposing corruption and abuse in the public 
administration, guiding the public taste in literature 
and philosophy. 

But these matters did not occupy the mind of the 
historian. His idea, as well as that of his country- 
men, evidently was that the history of a country 
implied its relation to the rest of the world ; whe- 
ther Greek or barbarian, internal history was only 
important so far as it was connected with this; its 
reputation was advanced by warlike exploits, and 
triumphs, and successes ; war, therefore, with its va- 
rious successes and reverses, was the subject naturally 
chosen, and formed the groundwork for his philo- 
sophical reflections. 

In comparing together the two great historians, it 



THE TWO HISTORIANS COMPARED. 91 

is plain that the mind and talents of both were ad- 
mirably suited to the work which they took in hand. 
The extensive field in which Herodotus laboured, 
the abundance and variety of materials with which 
his habits of investigation furnished him, afforded an 
opportunity for embellishing and illustrating his his- 
tory with the marvels of foreign lands ; he collected 
such accounts as would please and delight the reader, 
and invested them with the peculiar charm of his 
simple and attractive style. 

The glorious exploits of a great and free people 
stemming a tide of barbarian invaders, who appeared 
by their very numbers likely to overwhelm them, and 
finally triumphing completely over them ; the fea- 
tures of the earth which we inhabit, hitherto un- 
known, or misrepresented by fable, and enveloped 
in mystery ; the customs and histories of the barbarians 
with whom they had been at war, and of all other 
nations whose names were connected with Persia, 
either by lineage or conquest, were subjects which 
required the talents of a simple narrator, who had 
such love of truth as not wilfully to exaggerate, and 
such judgment as to select what was best worthy of 
attention. 

Thucydides had a narrower field. The mind of 
Greece was the subject of his study, as displayed in 
a single war, which was in its rise, progress, and con- 
sequences the most important which Greece had ever 
seen. It did not in itself possess that heart-stirring 
interest which characterizes the Persian war. In it 



92 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

united Greece was not struggling for her liberties 
against a foreign foe, animated by one common patriot- 
ism, inspired by an enthusiastic love of liberty ; but it 
presented the sad spectacle of Greece divided against 
herself, torn by the jealousies of race, and distracted 
by the animosities of faction. The task of Thucydides 
was that of studying the warring passions and antago- 
nistic workings of one mind. It was one, therefore, 
which, in order to become interesting and profitable, 
demanded that there should be brought to bear upon 
it the powers of a keen analytical intellect. To 
separate history from the traditions and falsehoods 
with which it had been overlaid, and to give the 
early history of Greece in its most truthful form ; 
to trace Athenian supremacy from its rise to its ruin, 
the growing jealousy of other states, whether inferiors 
or rivals, to which that supremacy gave rise ; to show 
its connexion with the enmities of race, and the 
oppositions of politics ; to point out what causes led 
to such wide results; how the insatiable ambition 
of Athens, gratifying itself in direct disobedience to 
the advice of their wise statesman, Pericles, led step 
by step to their ultimate ruin, required not a mere 
narrator of events, however brilliant, but a moral 
philosopher and a statesman. Such was Thucydides. 
Although his work shows an advance in the science of 
historical composition over that of Herodotus, and his 
mind is of a higher, because of a more thoughtful 
order, yet his fame by no means obscures the glory 
which belongs to the father of history. They appear 



SUBJECTIVITY OF THUCYDIDES. 93 

both to have attained that important wisdom which 

knows 

Quid ferre recusenfc 
Quid valeant humeri, — (Hon. Art. Poet), 

and each to have chosen the method of treatment 
best adapted for their subject-matter. Their walks 
are different ; they can never be considered as rivals, 
and therefore neither can claim superiority. 

Herodotus is almost as objective as Homer; there is 
little or nothing of self in his writings ; all his thoughts 
are absorbed in telling his story. His narrative embo- 
dies the spirit of the times in which he lived. Thucy- 
dides is subjective ; he values facts as illustrations of 
the principles which are deeply rooted in his own mind ; 
he gives a complete delineation of his own sentiments ; 
he is fitted to lead and direct public opinion, and his 
judgment on passing events and human conduct is 
far in advance of his age, and far more comprehensive 
and philosophical than that of his contemporaries. 



94 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



XENOPHON. — HIS BIRTH. CONNEXION WITH SOCRATES. JOINS THE 

EXPEDITION OF CYRUS. THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND. 

HIS HISTORY OF IT. ARGUMENT OF THE WORK. HIS MANNER OF 

LIFE IN HIS RETIREMENT AT SCILLUS. ■ THE HELLENICS. THE 

CYROP.EDIA. THE MEMORABILIA OF SOCRATES. THE VIEW OF THE 

SOCRATIC DOCTRINES CONTAINED IN IT COMPARED WITH THAT OF 

PLATO. — OTHER TREATISES OF XENOPHON. GENERAL CHARACTER 

OF HIS WORKS. CTESIAS. HIS WORKS ON ASSYRIAN AND PERSIAN 

HISTORY, AND ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF INDIA, OF LITTLE 
VALUE. 



Xenophon, born B.C. 447. 

Xenophon was the son of Gryllus, a native 
Athenian. The time of his birth is variously stated. 
Matthise places it 01. lxxxiii. 2, B.C. 447. a Clinton 
supposes him to have been about forty-two at the 
time of the " Anabasis," and consequently to have 
been born about B.C. 443. b He began life as a soldier, 
and, in B.C. 424, fought at the battle of Delium. c In 
the flight from that disastrous field, he fell from his 
horse, and owed his safety to the broad shoulders of 
the philosopher Socrates. This was the commence- 

a Matthise, History of Literature. 
b Fasti Hellenici, ii. 89. c Thucyd. iv. 96. 






BIOGRAPHY OF XENOPHON. 95 

ment of a firm and lasting friendship between these 
distinguished men. To whatever other instructors 
he owed any part of his education, it is certain that 
he derived all his moral and philosophical principles 
from Socrates. 

Nothing worthy of mention is known respecting 
him until b.c. 401, when he joined as a volunteer, 
without any military appointment, the expedition of 
Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes Mnemon. 
For a knowledge of his conduct on this occasion, 
and the motives which led to it, we are indebted to 
his own history. a Proxenus, a young man of great 
ambition, but upright principle, was a native of 
Thebes, and having come to Athens to study under 
Gorgias, formed a friendship with Xenophon. b He 
subsequently entered the service of Cyrus, and invited 
his Athenian friend to follow his example. The love 
of enterprize so natural to one who was at heart a 
thorough soldier, together with the political troubles 
which distracted his native land, tempted him to 
accept an invitation which scarcely appears consistent 
with Athenian patriotism. Before he decided, he 
asked the advice of Socrates. He, strange to say, 
made no objection, but recommended him to consult 
the Delphian oracle. Xenophon had determined to 
go, and only asked the oracle to what gods he should 
sacrifice in order to insure success. Xenophon then 
went to Sardis, and arrived in time to join the 
expedition. 

a Anab. iii. 1. b Ibid. ii. 6. 



96 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The army of Cyrus crossed the Taurus and the 
Euphrates, and met the Persians at Cunaxa, near 
Babylon. The Greeks were successful, but Cyrus 
fell ; and as soon as his death was known, the Ori- 
entals fled, and left the ten thousand Greeks in the 
plains of Mesopotamia. By the treachery of Tissa- 
phernes, the Greek generals were thrown into captivity, 
and afterwards put to death. It was at this desperate 
crisis that the qualifications of Xenophon pointed 
him out as the one to rescue them from their diffi- 
culties. Impressed, like his great master, with the 
idea that man's counsels are under divine direction, 
he dreamed a dream which determined him to per- 
suade the officers of Proxenus to put themselves at 
the head of his countrymen and lead them home. 
This memorable retreat stamps for ever the character 
of Xenophon as a man of patient endurance, gentle 
temper, cool resolution, and firm determination. His 
conduct presents a striking instance of the force of 
circumstances to call forth talents which have been 
latent only because no opportunities have before 
occurred of exhibiting them. He showed a natural 
fitness for stations of command, and, above all, that 
important qualification of an officer — sympathy with 
the soldier. This was Xenophon's philosophy ; he 
was not endowed with acute analytical powers ; he 
was not capable of deep original observation; his 
views of philosophy were even what might be termed 
popular and superficial. But as no one has surpassed 
him in his power of apprehending and appreciating 



BEAUTY OF HIS NARRATIVE. 97 

the practical bearing of any philosophical question, 
so his conduct on this trying occasion proved that his 
philosophy had a practical effect upon his character. 
His philosophy was not so much of the head as of 
the heart. 

As the retreat itself exhibits Xenophon as a great 
commander, so his history entitles him to rank much 
higher as an historian than as a theoretical philosopher, 
and for this reason he more appropriately finds a place 
in this chapter. His simple and natural descriptions 
of the countries which lay on the line of march, are 
doubtless unimaginative, and have none of the glow- 
ing fervour and gorgeous colouring of a poetic mind in- 
spired with the natural beauties which his eyes beheld 
for the first time; but they pretend to nothing more than 
a simple and faithful delineation of nature, and are for 
that reason delightful. His narrative may be unpoetic, 
but it is never prosy. His graphic power has been 
compared to that of the Flemish painters ; and few are 
insensible to the pleasure of contemplating their art — 
so true to nature — even of those who may not be able to 
soar so high as to appreciate fully the divine creations 
of a Michael Angelo or a Raphael. His interesting 
account of the troubles and difficulties and varied 
adventures which the Greeks met with on their long 
march ; of the invincible perseverance with which 
they fought their way, sword in hand, through the 
territories of hostile tribes not inferior to themselves 
in valour; carries, as it were, the reader with him 
through the very scenes which he describes ; and the 

VOL. II. H 



98 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

story of the return is enlivened and illustrated by 
amusing pictures of native manners and customs, 
almost equal to those of Herodotus himself. 

The difficulties of the march furnished the his- 
torian with a subject worthy of his pen. a Rapid rivers 
were crossed, and a passage successfully forced through 
the dangerous defiles and rocky fastnesses of Taurus, 
garrisoned by the warlike Carduchi. Now the cli- 
mate suddenly changed. Relaxed and enervated by 
the burning sun of Mesopotamia, they had rapidly 
ascended to the elevated table-land of Armenia. 

The snow fell and buried all beneath it, a bitter 
wind swept over this trackless waste of snow, and, 
maimed and mutilated by the frost-bite, many died 
of cold and starvation. At length, after severe suf- 
fering, the army was toiling up the sloping sides of 
Mount Thesbes, the front ranks had just reached the 
ridge, when a shout of joy arose, which was re-echoed 
from rank to rank until it reached the rear. They 
had seen the sea, the broad waters of the Euxine lay 
stretched at their feet. At first Xenophon and the 
rear guard were alarmed, thinking that they were 
attacked by the enemy; soon, however, they heard 
the words, SccXccrru, S-aAarra (the sea, the sea), and 
men and officers threw themselves into each other's 
arms with tears of joy. The soldiers spontaneously 
collected stones, and raised a huge mound as a me- 
morial of their safety. In two days more they ar- 
rived at Trapezus, the modern Trebizond, and thence 

a Anab. iv. 



RETURN OF THE TEN THOUSAND. 99 

the main army proceeded to Cerasus, and found that 
out of the ten thousand, eight thousand six hundred 
survived. When their perils were over, the unani- 
mous voice of the army wished to make Xenophon 
sole general, but he prudently declined the honour, 
fearing the jealousy of the Spartans. Chirisophus 
was consequently chosen. 

After a succession of events, which are related in 
the " Anabasis," a Xenophon recruited his exhausted 
resources by a raid in Lydia, the object of which was 
to plunder a Persian named Aridates. It is sad to 
contemplate the narrow-minded principle which ac- 
tuated the Greeks in their conduct towards barba- 
rians, and which could even justify to a man of piety 
and virtue like Xenophon. and one who so often in 
his writings expresses a contempt for wealth, an act 
of downright robbery. This unworthy exploit seems 
not to have disturbed his conscience ; the only cir- 
cumstance in it which redounds to his credit is, that 
he saw in it an opportunity of doing good to others. 

During this expedition the army had marched 
34,255 stadia (more than 4000 miles), and the time 
consumed in it was one year and three months. 

It was never the good fortune of Xenophon to 
return to Athens. Whilst he was in Asia a sen- 
tence of banishment was passed upon him. The 
causes which led to the enmity of his fellow-citizens, 
were probably, 1. The knowledge that his political 
principles were the same as those of his beloved pre- 
a Anab. viii. 8. 



100 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ceptor Socrates; 2. His attachment to Sparta; for 
Xenophon was with Agesilaus in his Persian cam- 
paign (b.c. 396), and he fought on the side of Sparta 
against the Athenians at the battle of Coroneia. The 
grateful Spartans granted him an estate at Scillus 
near Olympia. In this secluded retreat he passed 
his time in literary leisure, in horticulture, in the ma- 
nagement of his household property, in social enjoy- 
ments, and active field-sports ; in fact, he led the life 
of a country gentleman. His employments, says Di- 
ogenes Laertius, were hunting, entertaining his friends, 
and writing his histories. 

The excitements of war and the chase are na- 
turally allied to each other, the one as a serious occu- 
pation, the other as a pastime. It is not surprising 
that the retired soldier became a sportsman. The 
same hearty devotion to his work, which gives such 
life and spirit to the details of the " Anabasis," imparts 
a similar charm to his lighter compositions. Horses 
and hunting were to him a passion, and as much 
pleasure is derived from his description of a coursing 
meeting, as from that of a mountain bivouac in the 
snow, and as much practical wisdom on the subject 
is conveyed in his advice to the purchaser of a horse, 
or the trainer of a hound, as a general would acquire 
from a study of his campaigns. 

His great historical work is his Greek history, or 
" Hellenica." Valuable as this is for the exact and 
truthful narrative of events which it contains, and 
pleasing from the graceful and simple style which 



THE CYROP^SDIA. 101 

universally distinguishes the works of him, whose 
Greek is the purest Attic that ever was written, it is 
dry and uninteresting as compared with the " Return 
of the Ten Thousand." He was peculiarly fitted for 
the work of continuing the history of Thucydides 
in the same spirit as the author of it would have 
done, if the tradition related by Diogenes be true, 
that he was the editor of that work ; but we miss the 
vigorous, thoughtful, and philosophical mind of the 
older historian. The " Hellenica" continue the history 
of Thucydides as far as the battle of Mantineia 
(b.c. 362). 

The intimate knowledge which he had an oppor- 
tunity of gaining respecting Cyrus, and the admiration 
which he entertained for his character, led him to 
write the " Cyropsedia," an historical or philosophical 
romance founded on the real events of the early life 
of that prince. It may be considered as embodying 
his views as to what ought to be the education of a 
youth born to high rank and station ; of the senti- 
ments, moral and religious, which shed a lustre over 
an ingenuous mind, and of the political principles 
which he considered best adapted to ensure the well- 
being of a state. It is evident that he admired a 
well-regulated monarchy ; nor can this be wondered 
at, when it is known what were the evils in his day, 
as well of licentious democracy, as of tyrannical oli- 
garchy. But the institutions which he describes, 
were not those which really existed in Persia at the 
time when he wrote, but were constructed after an 



102 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ideal model, and almost as unreal as those in the 
" Republic " of his fellow-pupil Plato. 

The treatise entitled the " Memorabilia " of So- 
crates, is a view of the practical side of the Socratic 
philosophy. The life of Xenophon had, from his 
youth, been one of action rather than of rigid thought 
and severe contemplation; the circumstances into which 
he was thrown led him to independent action on his 
own responsibility, rather than to look to the views 
or opinions of others. When he thought, it was 
with reference to immediately acting upon his con- 
victions, and therefore his mind was habitually oc- 
cupied on particular cases and emergencies, and not 
on general principles. Hence he thought rapidly 
rather than deeply. Had he been a moral philo- 
sopher, he would have taken the casuistical side of 
moral philosophy. The deficiency which Plato left, 
Xenophon supplied. His mind was not suited for 
analysing the depths and developing all the intricacies 
of Socratic reasoning, but it was sufficiently acute to 
trace it and follow it to its practical results. The 
" Memorabilia," therefore, is in fact a defence of the 
tendency of the Socratic teaching, and the teaching 
itself is only developed incidentally, and with re- 
ference to this end, and therefore unsystematically, 
and in the form of detached sayings and conversations ; 
a subject is not thoroughly worked out as it is in the 
dialogues of Plato. 

On the subject of morals, there was a complete 
identity of sentiment between Plato and Socrates, 



THE MEMORABILIA. 103 

and although the philosophy of Plato penetrated far 
deeper than tha: Socrates, the whole mind 

of the latter vr Twined in that of the former. 

I there is reason to believe that Xenophon 
a more faithful reporter of the 3 : ::.::: say 

than Plato. The writings of Pk sent a vi 

re of his great master, bat his Socrate- if 
imaginary character, whilst evei rthing which the [ 
and honr-: aoldier^hilosophez gives in the "Ifemo- 
rabi" not merely Erratic, but actually a senti- 

ment expressed in the very words : Sc siates. 

If, therefore, the u Memorabilia * prc-ri::- a picture 
he method : instruction which Socrates pursued. 
and of the practical tendency of the doctrines which 
he taught, it is such an one as would be deline:.:f 

Inch could remember and retain his woi s, 
but was incapable of following him through all the 
netaphysical reasoning. It is the work 
of a man of good common sense, whc bc far a 

philosopher as to have culled from the conversations 
: S : crates all that had a practical 1 taring upon human 
: I: is :he offering of a 
and heart, who. in the retirement of his 

age, devoted some portion of his time be iseue the 
memory of an injured man from the undeserved im- 
putations of immorality and irreligion. 

Fwo other works of Xenophon ai to the 

memory of Socrates : — 1. Tie "A -: - 

3S to contain the substance of his address to his 

2. Fhe symposium,'' in which" a festive 



104 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

meeting, at the house of Callias, a rich Athenian, at 
which Socrates is present, furnishes an occasion for 
exhibiting the most striking features of the philoso- 
pher's character. 

In the dialogue entitled "(Economicus," Socrates is 
also represented as one of the characters, and thus gives 
a sanction to the views of Xenophon on the cultivation 
of a garden and a farm, the regulation of a household, 
the relative duties of wife and husband, and their 
respective offices as rulers and directors of the domes- 
tic economy. 

Two treatises on the Spartan and Athenian consti- 
tutions, and a treatise on Athenian ways and means, 
prove him to have been as prudent in the science of 
government and political economy, as he was in the 
regulation of a family and in the economy of domestic 
life ; and in an imaginary conversation between Hiero 
of Syracuse and Simonides, he shows himself fully 
impressed with the dangers and responsibilities of high 
station. 

A panegyric on his friend Agesilaus king of Sparta, 
a military work on the duties of a cavalry officer, and 
his books on horses and hunting, to which allusion 
has been already made, complete the list of works 
which bear the name of this accomplished man. All 
are characterized by good sense, clear intellect, a ca- 
pacity for governing others and influencing men's 
minds, cheerful activity, undaunted spirit, refined 
taste, unaffected simplicity, and, above all, devoted 
piety. He was too business-like to be a poet, too 



HISTORIES OF CTESIAS. 105 

much a citizen of the world to be a patriot, too prac- 
tical to be a deep philosopher. 

Ctesias, flourished about B.C. 400. 

Ctesias occupies the last place amongst the Greek 
historical writers belonging to this period of literary 
history. Nothing remains of his works but abridg- 
ments, together with a few fragments preserved by 
Plutarch, Athenseus, and others. He was a native of 
Cnidus, a contemporary of Thucydides and Xenophon, 
and lived some time at the court of Persia as domestic 
physician to Artaxerxes. This gave him an opportu- 
nity of access to the archives of the kingdom, and from 
these materials he composed, in the Ionian dialect, a 
history of the Assyrian and Persian monarchies, com- 
prised in twenty-three books, and extending to the 
year B.C. 398. a So far as it is possible to trace parts 
of his narrative in the works of other authors, it must 
have been of but little historical value. 

The accounts contained in the documents and state 
papers, from which he derived his information, were 
probably highly coloured, and exaggerated by national 
vanity, and therefore presented as untrue a picture as 
those Greek accounts which Ctesias professed to cor- 
rect. Statements, differing from those usually received, 
are made by him, and hence by some who place implicit 
confidence in Herodotus, he has been accused of 
wilful falsehood. But Herodotus was credulous as 
a Strabo, xiv. 



106 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

well as truthful ; he may therefore have been misled 
in his estimate of Persian grandeur and Greek valour, 
by the partiality of his countrymen. And Ctesias, in 
like manner, without prejudice to his honesty, may 
have placed too great confidence in the truthfulness 
of the Persian records which lie consulted. 

The history of the ancient Assyrian monarchy, con- 
tained in the first six books of his principal work, has 
met with more credit than it deserves, as it has been 
accepted by the majority of historians both in ancient 
and modern times. Nevertheless, it is perfectly irre- 
concilable with the chronology of Herodotus, and with 
the notices contained in the sacred Scriptures. He is 
the author of the mythical story that the Assyrian 
empire, during a period of thirteen centuries, was 
reigned over by a dynasty of thirty kings, of whom 
Ninus was the first ; and that Sardanapalus, the last of 
them, whose effeminate and luxurious character was 
the type of them all, set fire to his palace, and thus 
burnt himself and all his wealth (b.c. 876). This is 
entirely fable — a legend of the succeeding victorious 
dynasty. According to the chronology of the Old 
Testament, the Assyrian monarch Sennacherib did not 
die until B.C. 711, and this event was immediately 
followed by the revolt of the Medes. Neither Ninus 
nor the death of Sardanapalus is mentioned by He- 
rodotus, who also reckons that the empire had lasted 
five hundred and twenty years at the time of the 
Median revolt, and fixed the final destruction of 
Nineveh by Cyaxares, in B.C. 606. Modern discovery 



HIS WORK ON INDIA. 107 

will probably still more satisfactorily establish how 
undeserving of the reputation which it has hitherto 
held is the Assyrian and Persian history of Ctesias. 

He left another shorter work on the natural history 
of India, of which, as well as of his oriental history, an 
analysis is extant, by Photius the Byzantine. It is of 
little or no value, being derived from Persian records 
and traditions, and not from original researches ; 
and thus truth and fable are mingled together. He 
was also the author of other treatises, of which 
nothing but the names remain. 



108 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ELOQUENCE A FEATURE OF GREEK LITERATURE. EXAMPLES. SICI- 
LIAN SCHOOLS OF ELOQUENCE. TISIAS AND CORAX.— GREEK PROSE 

IMPROVED BY THE SOPHISTS. FIRST SCHOOL OF RHETORIC AT 

ATHENS ESTABLISHED BY GORGIAS. RIVALRY BETWEEN THE ORA- 
TORS AND PHILOSOPHERS. ORATORY ABUSED DURING PELOPONNE- 

SIAN WAR. CONSTITUTION AND CHARACTER OF THE ATHENIAN 

ECCLESIA EXAMPLES. THE EXTERNALS OF ORATORY MOST APPRE- 
CIATED BY THE ATHENIANS. CARE TAKEN IN THE COMPOSITION OF 

ORATIONS. NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS OF AN ORATOR. THE IN- 
FLUENCE OF FREE INSTITUTIONS ON ORATORY. 

Eloquence is one of the principal characteristics of 
Greek literature, whether poetical, historical, or philo- 
sophical. 3 The heroes of Homer are all orators. The 
very philosophers, who despised eloquence, and were 
the rivals of the orators, could not help being eloquent ; 
and Cicero b observes that, what he most admired 
when reading the " Gorgias '' was, that Plato, whilst 
deriding orators, showed himself the most consummate 
and accomplished orator of them all. Eloquence gives 
a charm to the romautic narratives of Herodotus, the 
philosophical history of Thucydides, and the soldier- 
like annals of Xenophon Doubtless, also, the tradi- 
tions of Solon, Pisistratus, Clisthenes, Pericles, Alcibi- 
a DeOrat. ii. 13, 14. b Ibid. i. x. 



ELOQUENCE OF THUCYDIDES. 109 

ades, inspired the orators of the flourishing period, and 
their skill was nurtured by the necessities of a free 
constitution. 

But Greek eloquence, in its perfection, owes a large 
debt of gratitude to Thucydides. Cicero, a indeed, 
denies that any rhetorician drew the principles of his 
art from the speeches of Thucydides. He affirms that 
they contain so many obscure and recondite sentiments 
that they can scarcely be understood. But this very 
obscurity arises from that condensation of thought 
which distinguishes Greek orators from the more 
diffuse and easy style of Roman or modern eloquence. 
If to the closely-packed thought of Thucydides be 
added the elaborate polish which marks the style of 
the Greek orators universally, the result exhibits all 
the qualities which command our admiration. The 
style of Thucydides is exactly that which is best fitted 
to educate an orator in the severe principles of his art, 
because it is at once suggestive of thought and an aid 
to reflection. The tradition is by no means an impro- 
bable one, that Demosthenes transcribed his history 
eight times; and a comparison of the speeches of 
Thucydides with the principles laid down in the 
" Rhetoric" of Aristotle, is a complete answer to the 
assertion of Cicero. 

But although the Greeks were by nature orators, as 

they were by nature poets, oratory, as an art, was of 

Sicilian origin. At an early period eloquence had 

been cultivated in those states of Sicily, which after 

a Cic. Orat. 9. 



110 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the expulsion of their tyrants had become democratic/ 
Regular schools of rhetoric had been founded by Tisias 
and Corax, b and their teaching had begun to assume a 
systematic form. From Sicily rhetorical science found 
its way to Athens, which had then become the home 
of learning and philosophy. Greece, by this time, 
was prepared for its reception, for although the lite- 
rature of the age was still tinged with a poetic 
colouring, prose had already attained a high degree of 
perfection. 

For whatever errors the sophists were responsible, 
however superficial their philosophy may have been, 
the praise is, at least, due to them of having imparted 
a beauty and finish to prose composition, which it did 
not possess before. 

The first school of rhetoric at Athens was esta- 
blished by Gorgias of Leontium. He was the inventor 
of the periodic style, and analysed the principles of 
rhetorical rhythm, which is said to have been first 
employed by Thrasymachus of Chalcedon. d Amongst 
those who attended his instructions were Critias and 
Alcibiades, both of whom were celebrated for their 
powers of oratory. Two declamations ascribed to him 
are still extant, the titles of which are '"EkivTjg lyxupiov 
and HccXcc[jbf]lovg MKokoyiM* They are mere rhetorical 
exercises intended to illustrate the principles of the 
science which he taught. The other sophists of that 

a B.C. 472-465. b Cic. de Orat. i. 20. 

c Matthise, History of Literature. 
d Cic. Or. 52. e Reiske, Orat. viii. 



RHETORICAL TEACHERS. Ill 

period, who were most celebrated as rhetorical teachers, 
were Protagoras of Abdera, Thrasymachus of Chal- 
cedon, Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis. 

It was in consequence of all the rhetorical teaching 
being in the hands of the sophists, that the irrecon- 
cilable rivalry subsisted between them and their 
bitter enemies, the philosophers, and that prejudice 
which was properly due only to their ostentatious and 
superficial philosophy was directed against eloquence 
itself. " The philosophers," writes Cicero, " despised 
eloquence — the orators wisdom;" but notwithstand- 
ing this opposition, eloquence was so congenial to 
Athenian tastes, and so adapted to the wants of their 
democratic constitution, that it rapidly advanced to 
maturity both in practice and theory. 

Amongst those who were celebrated for eloquence, 
Cicero a enumerates Solon, Pisistratus, Clisthenes, Pe- 
ricles, Critias, Theramenes, and Alcibiades, to whose 
oratorical powers Demosthenes b also bears testimony. 
The characteristic features of their style, he describes 
as subtlety, acuteness, and brevity, copiousness of 
ideas rather than of words. Respecting the accuracy 
of this criticism we have no means of judging, for the 
specimens which have come down to us in history are 
but the probable sentiments of the speaker expressed 
in the language of the historian. 

Oratory, upon the whole, appears to have been most 
abused during the Peloponnesian war. Pericles, 
indeed, possessed the three oratorical qualifications — 

a De Clar. Or. 7 ; De Orat. ii. 22. b Dem. c. Mid. 



112 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

honesty, talent, and patriotism.* 1 His moral qualities, 
therefore, prevented him from abusing the ability with 
which he influenced the popular will. His successors, 
Cleon and Hyperbolus, were men of talent, but mere 
mob-orators ; their eloquence was of that noisy and 
vulgar kind which carries with it the feelings of a 
mixed multitude, but they were grovelling, self-inter- 
ested, unprincipled. Alcibiades, whose brilliant elo- 
quence was of a totally different stamp, that of a 
polished and well-educated Athenian gentleman, had, 
nevertheless, no more honesty than the baser dema- 
gogues, for he cared only to gratify his ostentatious 
ambition. And Cleophon, who next came upon the 
public stage, was worse than all; for not only had 
he no honesty and patriotism, but his oratorical powers 
were inferior likewise ; he was made what he was, not 
by his own abilities, but by the circumstances of the 
times. 

In order to form an idea of Athenian oratory, it 
is necessary to consider what was the principal field 
for its exercise. The constitution of the Athenian 
ecclesia was a very remarkable one. More than six 
thousand citizens, possessed of irresponsible political 
power, to whom all those entrusted with the adminis- 
tration of public affairs were responsible, were met 
together to decide some question which involved their 
most important interests, perhaps their national ex- 
istence. They were prepared to listen with breathless 
attention if the orator was skilful enough to gain 
a Arist. Rhet. i. 



THE ATHENIAN ECCLESIA. 113 

the ear of the assembly ; or, on the other hand, to 
interrupt, with noise and clamour, if his arguments 
or recommendations were unpalatable. Its numbers 
prevented it from bearing the remotest resemblance 
to the calm, business-like, deliberative bodies of 
modern times ; and yet, except in point of numbers, 
it was unlike a mob, for it was composed of totally 
different elements. Every one of these six thousand 
Athenian citizens prided himself on being a gentle- 
man by birth, station, and occupation. He was, to 
a certain extent, a man of education, and taste, and 
refined pursuits. He was accustomed to weigh evi- 
dence, as a dicast in the courts of law ; he was capable 
of enjoying the beauties of literature, as set before 
him in his favourite amusement — the drama. He 
was accustomed to exercise his taste in literary criti- 
cism. • He could enjoy the tragic grandeur of iEschy- 
lus, and Sophocles, and Euripides, and the racy wit of 
Aristophanes. He was, therefore, quite as capable of 
criticizing the arguments and the literary powers of 
the orator. 

Moreover, the Athenian governed himself, and not 
only himself, but the allies over whom he claimed 
an imperial supremacy. He could form a judgment 
upon all the bearings, and could enter into all the 
merits of each political question, foreign and domestic, 
whether of war, or peace, or commerce, or finance, 
and knew that on his decision rested the welfare of 
his country and his own personal prosperity. And, 
besides all this, not a few of this remarkable people 

VOL. II. I 



114 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

took the same interest in abstract philosophical ques- 
tions which they did in the stirring transactions of 
real life ; to many of them philosophical studies were 
the amusements of their leisure hours. These, then, 
were prepared to weigh the arguments of the orator 
in a calm philosophical spirit; they were not likely 
to be led away by mere appeals to passion and 
prejudice, or by logical fallacies, however artfully 
concealed, and whilst they were qualified to admire 
the true beauties of oratory, they would not be 
pleased by bad taste or meretricious ornament. 

The Athenian hqpog, in fact, combined the good 
and bad points in the character of a populace, with 
the distinguishing features of an educated deliberative 
assembly. It appreciated, as the populace of all 
nations usually does, strong and manly common sense, 
an earnestness such as inspires the hearer with con- 
fidence in the sincerity of the orator, and the reality 
of his views. It admired boldness in grappling with 
difficulties, fearless devotion to the cause of liberty, and 
talent for forcible and homely illustrations. At the 
same time it was easily persuaded, was quick at taking 
offence, and was readily led away by the grossest 
flattery. The history of the upright and truthful 
Thucydides abounds in passages which assert that too 
often the popular speakers and demagogues thought 
much more of what would give immediate pleasure 
to their hearers, than of what would advance the 
best interests of the commonwealth. Isocrates asserts 
that those demagogues who were the worst morally, 



THE ATHENIAN DEMUS. 115 

and the most contemptible intellectually, were the 
most popular. And Aristophanes a declares that the 
office of a popular leader is suited neither for an 
educated nor a moral man, but only for an illiterate 
scoundrel. These strong expressions may, perhaps, 
be the exaggerations in which a popular rhetorician 
and a comic writer would be likely to indulge, but 
still the examples with which history furnishes us, 
prove that they are, in the main, true. 

It cannot be doubted that the Athenian demus 
was liable to be swayed by all the worst passions 
which have influenced the populace of any nation 
either ancient or modern. Pericles, in his funeral 
oration, feared to praise in a direct manner those who 
had sacrificed their lives in the cause of their country, 
lest he should provoke the mean and petty jealousy of 
the sovereign people. He felt it necessary to flatter 
the national pride, and when he had thus excited 
their sentiments of approbation, skilfully to divert 
them from their course toward those whom he wished 
to eulogize ; and even in those speeches in which he 
exhibits such a comprehensive acquaintance with all 
the details of public business, he condescends to 
recommend his statesman-like views by extolling the 
glories of Athenian supremacy. The hollow and 
selfish arguments of Cleon, in the case of the Mity- 
leneans, prove how easily the Athenian people was 
misled by fallacies when they were on the side of 
self-interest. The still more savage decree against 

a Aristoph. de Pace, v. i. ; Equ. 188. 

i 2 



116 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the ill-fated Melians, is a stronger proof that it was 
almost destitute of moral principles and human sym- 
pathies. The jealousy with which the theatrical funds 
were guarded, by attaching the penalty of death to 
the mere proposal of their repeal, is a proof that 
Athenian patriotism would always give way when the 
question was the loss of any favourite gratification. 
However stern and pressing the necessities of the 
case might be, the Athenian citizen would not resign, 
for his country's sake, the accustomed feast, or the 
favourite spectacle. 

Even the maintenance of their naval supremacy, 
on which their proud national position was founded, 
was nothing in comparison with the risk of curtailing 
the daily fee which the dicasts received for attend- 
ance in the courts of law as jurymen. 

Agor. Put case, — a brace of orators arose, 

And one thus uttered him — 'Tis fit we manned 
A fleet. The other — Sirs, the dicasts must not 
Curtail them of their fee — how went the issue ? 
Mark ! the ship-advocate is quashed anon — 
Look to the fee-commander — he hath gained 
His cause, and gone about his business presently. 

Arist. Knights, v. 2 (Mitchell). 

The levity and fickleness with which the demus 
would change their favourites, according as one outbid 
the other in the contest for popular favour, is graphi- 
cally described in another scene of the same comedy a — 
too long for quotation here. One offers to steal bread, 

a Aristoph. Knights, 742. 



TESTIMONY OF ARISTOPHANES. 117 

and give it toDemus, to provide him with a soft cushion 
to sit on, and to buy him a pair of shoes ; the other, by 
trade a tanner, throws around his shoulders a cloak, 
w 7 hich Demus indignantly refuses, because it smells so 
strong of leather, and follows it up with the offer of a 
dish of fees as a reward for — doing nothing. Alternate 
bribes follow in rapid succession ; a box of salve for 
his poor shins, bruised by kicking and squeezing in 
the ecclesia ; a hare's tail to wipe the rheum from 
his dear little eyes — a useful present where so many 
of the population, owing to the dust and dazzling 
whiteness of the soil, suffered from ophthalmia. 
Cleon then is anxious to pull out his grey hairs, 
and make him young again, and both vying with 
each other in servility, are eager that he should use 
the hair of their heads for a purpose by no means 
agreeable. This dark side of the Athenian character 
laid them open to the deceitful flatteries of designing 
men, and at the same time tempted and encouraged the 
orator to become a demagogue, and the man of talent, 
who was ambitious of influence, to pursue crooked 
and dishonest paths to popularity. Nor did they only 
make use of the common arts of rhetoric, but put in 
action every legislative enactment and form of trans- 
acting public business which would assist them in 
gaining their ends. The intriguing Alcibiades, on 
one occasion, 21 persuaded the Lacedaemonian ambassa- 
dors to deny that they had plenipotentiary powers, in 
contradiction of their former assertions, in order that 
a Thucyd. v. 45. 



118 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the assembly might suspect them of insincerity. Thus 
an alliance was concluded with Argos, in opposition 
to the views of the judicious Nicias. Cleon, in the 
case of Mityleneans, a and Nicias, on the question of 
the Sicilian expedition, 5 did not hesitate to propose 
the reversal of the vote which the assembly had 
already passed, although such a proposal was irregular 
and informal. And that wise statesman and prudent 
general, when he sent from Sicily requesting a rein- 
forcement or the recall of the army, was so alive to 
the danger that the fidelity of his messengers might 
be tampered with, or themselves puzzled and abashed 
by the cross-examining of adverse orators, and thus 
fail of giving a correct account of his views, forwarded 
his dispatch in writing ; a proceeding which, by Thucy- 
dides mentioning it, c we may presume to have been 
unusual. 

An orator would even be guilty of mean and dis- 
honest subterfuges ; he would cause the terms of a 
decree to be altered so as to suit his purpose/ or one 
part to be read by the clerk in court, and the other 
omitted; he would deceive the ecclesia as to the real 
object of a measure proposed for consideration, or 
keep it in entire ignorance as to its purport, by not 
having the bill read by the proper officer. 

Whilst such were the bad points which laid snares 
for the honesty of a popular orator, and tempted him 
to go astray from the strict path of duty, and such the 

a Thucyd. iii. 37 b Ibid. vi. 14. c Ibid. vii. 8. 

d See Note in Mitch. Aristoph. Equit. 734. 



OPPOSITE QUALITIES OF ORATORS. 119 

practices which custom sanctioned, the orator had 
also to bear in mind those circumstances favourable 
to a better style of oratory, which have already been 
mentioned. He could not forget that he was address- 
ing an audience, many of whom were possessed of a 
sound, vigorous, and cultivated intellect ; that there 
were many who could detect and expose a sophism ; 
who were morally competent to admire and applaud 
uncompromising attachment to truth and justice, as 
well as intellectually fitted to appreciate logical acute- 
ness, correctness of taste, elegance of style, and all the 
graces of the most finished eloquence. 

In every stage of Athenian oratory, whenever an 
opportunity is afforded of forming an estimate of the 
orator's character, we are unavoidably struck with the 
fact that men of such opposite qualities could com- 
mand a hearing. At that period, when the influence 
of demagogues was especially triumphant, the same 
people which could vote at the will of the vulgar 
and vain-glorious Cleon, listened also with respect to 
the finished oratory and statesman-like policy of 
Pericles, and saw in him a true friend of popular 
liberty. They could be pleased with the narrow- 
minded flattery of the former, and yet were not 
insensible to the liberal views of the latter. They 
could assent to the ambitious proposals of the in- 
triguing Alcibiades, and yet consider calmly the wise 
and prudent measures of the far-sighted Nicias. 

It is evident that the Athenians not only attended 
the ecclesia, with a view to public business, or to 



120 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

make up their minds on the question before them, 
and to vote according to their convictions, but that 
they took pleasure in the strife of words ; they looked 
upon the debate as a contest in which the combatants 
were striving for victory, and they did not care suf- 
ficiently whether or no victory was on the side of 
truth. 

But it is also evident, from the instructions of the 
earlier rhetoricians, and from the care which Aristotle 
took to uphold the importance of argumentative proof, 
that the Athenian people derived their principal 
pleasure from the externals of oratory, the grace of 
delivery, and the charms of language and style. The 
Greek ear was probably more sensitive than that of 
any other nation. The same appreciation of time and 
tune which could distinguish the most delicate modu- 
lations of metrical poetry, could trace the rise and fall 
of a prose sentence, and according as the clauses were 
well-balanced or the reverse, be pleased or offended. 

The rules which Aristotle lays down in his " Rhe- 
toric," a show how critical and well-tuned was the 
Athenian ear. Even false antitheses, in which sound 
entirely took the place of sense, were considered by 
that consummate critic as not altogether deficient in 
oratorical beauty. Longinus quotes a sentence from 
an oration of Demosthenes, b the rhythm of which he 
considers so perfect, that the mere omission or trans- 
position of a word would destroy its cadence. Igno- 
rant as we are of the accent and pronunciation, it 
e Rhetoric, book iii. b Demos, de Subl. $> 39. 



THEIR SPEECHES ELABORATE. 121 

is impossible to discover the principles on which 
this assertion is founded, but it may be affirmed that 
there is no sentence in any modern orator of which 
the structure might not be so slightly altered without 
diminution of effect or beauty. 

We can scarcely understand the patient study and 
elaborate care with which the Athenian orators 
worked up their speeches. With us a speech is more 
effective in proportion as it bears marks of being 
eoo tempore ; natural and unstudied simplicity, a burst 
of passionate eloquence which seems to come from the 
heart, is more captivating and convincing than the most 
polished periods ; nor is the effect diminished by that 
degree of roughness which distinguishes nature from 
art. Many of the most practised speakers of modern 
times owe their persuasiveness, not so much to what are 
called the graces of oratory, as to the business-like 
character which pervades their addresses. A modern 
orator studies his subject, and makes himself master 
of all its bearings ; he furnishes himself with argu- 
ments, and examples, and facts, and illustrations, but 
he generally trusts to his own powers to find language 
when the occasion arrives, or, at most, only prepares 
some passages to serve as resting-places, or a compre- 
hensive summary of his arguments to serve as a 
peroration. 

The Greek orator, or rather, it should be said, the 
Athenian orator, for oratory flourished only in Athens, 
composed and wrote his speech in private, before he 
delivered it in public; he bestowed the same care 



122 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

on it which he would .on an essay intended for publi- 
cation. Some of the orations which have come down 
to us were written as rhetorical exercises and never 
spoken at all ; others were written by one man and 
delivered by another. This is the case with some of 
the orations of Isocrates, in which are displayed the 
most exquisite graces of style and the greatest per- 
fection of composition. "That great orator," says 
Cicero, a " and perfect teacher nursed his talents within 
the walls of his house; the light of the forum shone 
not on his glory." 

From the mixed character of the audience which 
the Athenian orator was called upon to influence in 
the public assembly, it is clear that he needed many 
high qualifications. Quickness and tact in observing 
the state of feeling which pervaded the assembly, and 
in adapting and accommodating himself to it, a com- 
prehensive and retentive memory, a perfect knowledge 
of human nature, a command over the powerful re- 
sources of the Greek language, and a wide range of 
political and historical information. The various sub- 
jects enumerated by Cicero b as necessary for an accom- 
plished orator, were studied by the Greek orators with 
the utmost diligence, and it is clear from the sum- 
mary enumeration of topics in the "Rhetoric" of Aris- 
totle, that not only a sound liberal education, but a 
long course of preparatory study, was deemed neces- 
sary in order to qualify an orator for his profession. 
Nor can it be a matter of surprise that such in- 
a Cic. de Claris Orat. viii, b Cic. de Orat. i. 34. 



ORATORY THE ROAD TO EMINENCE. 123 

tense devotion to this art or science prevailed. In a 
republic in which the people were all in all, and every 
measure was to be submitted to their approbation 
there was but this one road to civil eminence. To 
influence the masses and lead their will in whatever 
direction he pleased, was necessarily the great ambi- 
tion of every able Athenian. The experience of the 
statesman, the wisdom of the legislator, the cultiva- 
tion even of the mere man of literary taste were 
useless and powerless unless recommended by elo- 
quence. Moreover, eloquence was not only in civil 
life the avenue to distinction, but, to a certain extent, 
it was also indispensable to the military man. The 
general was chosen by his fellow-citizens, and there- 
fore owed his position not only to his reputation as a 
warrior, but to the influence which he exercised over 
the ecclesia. The harangues of military commanders, 
to be met with in the pages of history, prove that 
the success of a campaign depended not only upon the 
maintenance of discipline as a matter of military 
command, but on kindling the ardour of the sol- 
diery by eloquent appeals to their enthusiasm and 
patriotism. 

In the council of war he had to deal with officers 
who were almost on an equality with himself, subor- 
dinate, indeed, professionally, but nevertheless quite 
his equals as Athenian citizens. The persuasiveness, 
therefore, and skill of the orator were on all accounts 
of no small importance to enforce his authority as a 
general. 



124 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Greek eloquence arose and flourished during the 
period of Greek liberty. It did not entirely decay 
until Athenian independence was utterly crushed. 
Both died together. Freedom has always been fa- 
vourable to the growth and cultivation of oratory. It 
finds no place under tyranny or absolutism, for there 
are none to whom to address the language either of 
persuasion or conviction ; it languishes unless encou- 
raged by the approbation of numbers, or excited by 
the antagonism of debate. Hence, whilst oratory 
flourished under the protection of Athenian demo- 
cracy, Sparta never produced an orator; and that 
terse and vigorous, but ungraceful and unadorned 
style of speech, the name of which has passed into a 
proverb, was alone congenial to the oligarchal system 
of Lacedsemon. 



EARLIEST WRITTEN ORATIONS. 125 



CHAPTER XV. 

EARLIEST WRITTEN ORATIONS. ANTIPHON. — HIS LIFE AND OCCUPA- 
TION. RESEMBLANCE OF HIS STYLE TO THAT OF THUCYDIDES. 

— ANDOCIDES. HIS LIFE, POLITICS, AND DATES OF HIS EXTANT 

ORATIONS. — HIS TROUBLES AND EXILE. VALUE OF HIS ORATIONS. 

LYSIAS. — MIGRATES TO THURII. — IS EXILED, AND RETURNS TO 

ATHENS. ASSISTS THRASYBULUS AND HIS PARTY. HIS STYLE. 

INFLUENCE OF HERODOTUS ON IT. INFLUENCE OF ISOCRATES ON 

ORATORY. VARIOUS CRITICISMS ON HIS STYLE. HIS LIFE AND 

SUICIDE. — IS^US. — LITTLE KNOWN OF HIS LIFE. — HE WAS A PUPIL 
OF LYSIAS AND ISOCRATES, AND INSTRUCTOR OF DEMOSTHENES. 

The first orators who are said to have composed 
and delivered written orations are Aristophon, Cleo- 
phon, Callistratus and Phseax, a but no fragments of 
their works remain. The earliest speeches which are 
now extant are fifteen by Antiphon, and four by 
Andocides. 

Antiphon, born B.C. 479. 

Antiphon was a native of the Attic borough Rham- 
nus. His father was Sophilus, a sophist; and to 
him he owed the principal part of his education. 
He was rather a teacher of rhetoric, and composer 
of orations, than an orator. The great object which 
Matthiae, History of Literature. 



126 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

he proposed to himself as an instructor, was to sub- 
stitute a practical, searching, and argumentative style 
of speaking for that showy and ornate oratory, which 
was taught by the sophists; in this, therefore, he 
was their rival ; and the effect of his teaching may 
be seen in the terse and logical speeches interspersed 
throughout the history of his pupil, Thucydides. 

In the revolutionary period (b.c. 411), a which pre- 
ceded the reign of terror at Athens, the influence of 
Antiphon was directed to the establishment of the 
Four hundred. When the power of his party was 
overthrown, he was accused of treason, and, after an 
able defence b (the only oration which he ever deli- 
vered), was condemned to death, his property confis- 
cated, and his children pronounced infamous (ari(Jboi). 

Of the fifteen orations extant composed by him, 
three were written for clients, and twelve are merely 
rhetorical exercises, composed for the sake of practical 
instruction. They are arranged in three tetralogies ; the 
cases to which they relate are imaginary, and all have 
the supposed commission of murder for their subject. 

The custom of professional orators writing speeches 
for clients arose from the practice of the Athenian 
courts, in which the parties to the suit were not 
represented by counsel, but addressed the dicasts in 
person. Hence, if not possessed of oratorical talents, 
they availed themselves of the superior skill of some 
practised rhetorician. Antiphon is said to have been 
the first who received a fee for this assistance ; but if 
a Thucyd. viii. 68. b Cic. Brut. i. 12. 



STYLE OF ANTIPHON. 127 

so, his example was afterwards generally followed. The 
style of Antiphon is perspicuous, natural, pathetic, and 
forcible ; his reasoning close, logical, and convincing, 
just such as, making allowance for different minds, 
we might expect would have given birth to that of 
Thucydides, and through him to that of Demosthenes. 
He may be considered the parent of practical oratory, 
as opposed to that mere ornamental brilliance which 
the sophists considered its essential quality. The 
absence of ornament may perhaps produce an effect 
of hardness and want of grace, but still there is a 
business-like reality which keeps up a strong interest, 
and makes it impossible to forget the object which he 
earnestly and steadily keeps in view. 

Andocides, born B.C. 467. 

Andocides was of noble family, and was born at 
Athens. Like Antiphon, he was attached to the 
oligarchal party, and his political sentiments involved 
him in the accusation brought against Alcibiades by 
the supporters of democracy, of having mutilated the 
Hermae. The oration which he delivered in his own 
defence against this charge, B.C. 415, is one of the 
four still extant. The following are the titles of the 
other three, and the dates when they were spoken. 

Against Alcibiades, B.C. 416; on his own return 
to Athens, B.C. 411 ; on peace with Lacedsemon, B.C. 
393, a or B.C. 391. b His life was chequered by mis- 

a Matthiae, History of Greek Literature. b Clinton. 



128 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

fortunes, numerous even for the troubled times in 
which he lived, but they were principally owing to 
his own political insincerity. Whether an accomplice 
or not, in the impiety of Alcibiades, he was sentenced 
to civil disfranchisement, and was obliged to leave 
Athens. And when the establishment of the Four 
hundred secured the ascendancy of his own party, he 
does not appear to have possessed their confidence. 
His conduct, during his exile, was suspected even by 
his friends, and although he returned to Athens, 
trusting to their protection, the oligarchal party 
brought him to trial, and he only saved his life by 
taking sanctuary at the altar. Four times in all he 
was banished from Athens, and at last died in exile. 
The orations of Andocides have little to recommend 
them in point of style and oratorical skill, but are 
invaluable on account of the historical and political 
information which they contain. 

Lysias, born B.C. 458. 

Lysias was the son of Cephalus, a Syracusan, who 
was resident at Athens. He was born in that city, 
and was naturalized, although not admitted to all 
the privileges of an enfranchised citizen. He was 
one of the colonists who, together with Herodotus, 
went to Thurii, B.C. 443, where he remained until 
B.C. 411, and studied rhetoric under Tisias. His poli- 
tical principles were democratical, and when the defeat 
of the Athenians at Syracuse caused the ascendancy 



BIOGRAPHY OF LYSIAS. 129 

of Dorian politics in Magna Grnecia and Sicily, he 
was exiled from Thurii, and returned to Athens. 

In the colonies and inferior states, all the partizans 
of Athens were democratical, as all the friends of 
Sparta were oligarchal ; and hence, when he arrived 
at Athens, he found a state of things entirely opposed 
to his political sentiments. The revolution took place, 
and the reign of the Thirty Tyrants began. His poli- 
tics, therefore, were as unacceptable in Athens as in 
Thurii. His property was confiscated, himself im- 
prisoned, and afterwards exiled. He lived in Megara 
until the restoration of the constitution in B.C. 402, 
which he assisted, by patriotically contributing the 
relics of his property in the cause of Thrasybulus and 
the liberators of Athens. He resided at Athens until 
his death, which took place B.C. 378. a 

Of two hundred and thirty orations, attributed to 
Lysias, forty-four are extant, some of which are incom- 
plete. All his orations were written for his clients, 
with the exception of that against Eratosthenes, which 
he himself delivered. As his occupation was that of 
a " chamber counsel," and not of a statesman, the 
subjects of his orations are of a private nature, and not 
of political interest, but incidentally they contain 
valuable information on the Athenian financial 
system. 

The language of Lysias is the purest Attic, and his 
style combines simplicity with dignity, and elegant 
ornament with perspicuity. Its principal deficiency is 

a Matthise, History of Literature. 
VOL. II. K 



130 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

in pathos, and perhaps the criticism of Cicero 3 is 
correct, which alleges that it is wanting in manly 
vigour ; his sentiments, undoubtedly, are never of an 
elevated kind. No orator has commanded greater 
admiration from the ancients, who have in turn 
attributed to him all the principal qualifications of 
an accomplished writer. Dionysius b praises him for 
grace, and for his excellence in the polished style 
{y\cc<pvgo$ Xoyog), Cicero for subtlety, Quinctilian for 
truthfulness; and a study of his speeches will show 
that for elegance, precision, and purity, he has been 
unequalled by any orator except Isocrates. 

It is not improbable that the simplicity which dis- 
tinguishes the style of Lysias, and which was so 
remarkable as to be entitled by the ancients a<pekqg 
Xoyog, was owing, in some degree, to intercourse with 
Herodotus, and to an admiration for the works of that 
historian. There were causes naturally tending to 
bring them together ; their political sentiments were 
in unison. Both were metics, and, like the rest of 
their class, liberal, and attached to democratic princi- 
ples, and both joined the Athenian colony which 
migrated to Thurii. 

Isocrates, born B.C. 436. 

To Isocrates Athenian eloquence is most deeply 
indebted. He was the founder of the most flou- 

a Cic. de Orat. i. 54. b Dion. Lys. 10. 

e Cic. de Orat. iii. 7. 



STYLE OF ISOCRATES. 131 

rishing school of rhetoric, and numbered the most 
distinguished orators amongst his pupils. " From his 
school," says Cicero, 3 "as from the Trojan horse, 
princes only proceeded .... Such were Demosthenes, 
Hyperides, Lycurgus, iEschines, and Dinarchus." He 
appears to have been the first who took a compre- 
hensive view of the proper end and object of eloquence, 
and his pure and refined taste accurately distinguished 
between its use and abuse. He despised those subtle- 
ties with which the artificial system of the sophists 
had overlaid practical eloquence, and saw how far 
ornament might be employed without danger to clear- 
ness. The criticism of Quinctilian b is rather too severe ; 
although his style is highly figurative, the frigidity of 
excessive ornament can scarcely be laid to the charge 
of Isocrates ; the only fault, perhaps, which he has, is 
that the rhythm of his periods produce upon the ear 
the effect of poetry, and the melodious similarity of 
his cadences are sometimes monotonous. In that 
passage in which Cicero c expresses in a single word 
the characteristic merit of each Greek orator, and 
attributes subtlety to Lysias, acuteness to Hyperides, 
sound to iEschines, and force to Demosthenes, he 
attributes, with his usual accuracy of taste and judg- 
ment, sweetness to Isocrates. 

Care and time in polishing and elaborating their 
orations are characteristic of the Greek orators univer- 
sally, but in this Isocrates surpassed them all. It is 
even said that he spent ten years in completing his 

a Cic. de Orat. ii. 22. "» Quinct. § 13. c Cic. de Orat. iii. 7. 

k2 



132 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

celebrated panegyric oration ; the exordium of which, 
after all the pains bestowed upon it, provoked the 
criticism of Longinus, that it is an example of dis- 
graceful puerility and ambitious exaggeration. 3 

There are few circumstances of interest in his life. 
Physical weakness and a timid temper indisposed 
him to take part in active political life, or to deliver 
the orations which he composed so skilfully; 5 he 
therefore devoted himself to the work of an instructor, 
and to the composition of speeches for others. The 
profession which he had chosen was a profitable one, 
his pupils paid him large sums, and the fees which 
he received from his clients were considerable. He 
was a native of Athens, and his father's name was 
Theodoras. He established his first school at Chios, 
in consequence of having lost his inheritance in 
calamitous and disturbed times ; afterwards he opened 
one at Athens. Although quiet and retiring, his 
patriotism was fervent and affectionate ; for when the 
fatal battle of Chseronea put an end to Greek inde- 
pendence, so severely did he feel the blow that he 
died by his own hand, in the ninety-ninth year of 
his age. 

Is^ius. 

Scarcely anything is known respecting the life of 
Isaeus. His father was named Diagoras, and he flou- 
rished between the conclusion of the Peloponnesian 
war and the accession of Philip of Macedon. Whether 

a Quinct. x. 4. b Cic. de Orat. ii. 3. 



STYLE OF IS^US. 133 

the place of his birth was Chalcis or Athens is uncer- 
tain. His instructors in oratory were Lysias and 
Isocrates, and a marked resemblance may be traced 
between his style and that of the former. In one point, 
however, he was decidedly inferior to his teacher, 
namely, that, through affectation of ornament, he lost 
that simplicity which gives such a charm to the ora- 
tory of Lysias. Artifice, also, is so plainly visible as to 
appear the result of effort, and is therefore destructive 
of the natural ease which must veil and conceal art, 
if persuasive and pleasing. Demosthenes was his 
most distinguished pupil. According to Suidas, he 
taught him without charge ; but Plutarch states (and 
his account is more in agreement with the custom 
prevalent at that time), that he received for his in- 
structions ten thousand drachmae or £400. 

Eleven speeches out of fifty, which were considered 
genuine, are now extant, all of which relate to causes 
connected with the Athenian law of inheritance. 
Valuable, therefore, as they are, with reference to this 
part of Athenian jurisprudence, they are necessarily 
uninteresting. 



134 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO THE PERFECTION OF ORATORY. — 

PARENTAGE AND BIRTH OF DEMOSTHENES. DISHONESTY OF HIS 

GUARDIANS. HIS SELF-EDUCATION. — ACTS AS CHOREGUS. — PROSE- 
CUTES MIDI AS. INSTANCES IN WHICH HE DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF 

AS AN ORATOR HIS PHILIPPIC AND OLYNTHIAC ORATIONS. 

HIS DENUNCIATION OF THE TREACHERY OF .ESCHINES. HIS SPEECH 

DE CORONA. — IMPRISONMENT. — EXILE. — DEATH. CRITICISM ON HIS 

STYLE. ^ISCHINES. HIS PARENTAGE AND FAMILY. HE WAS 

SCHOOLMASTER, SECRETARY, SOLDIER AND AMBASSADOR. SENT ON 

TWO OCCASIONS AS DELEGATE TO THE AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL. 

HIS EXILE AND DEATH. HYPERIDES. — HIS UPRIGHT CHARACTER 

ACCUSES DEMOSTHENES. LEAVES ATHENS. HIS DEATH. — DEMADES. 

HIS GREAT TALENTS AND UNPRINCIPLED CHARACTER. HIS 

DEATH. LYCURGUS. HIS FINANCIAL ABILITIES. ANECDOTE RE- 
LATED BY PLUTARCH. STATUE ERECTED TO HIS HONOUR. DINAR- 

CHUS. HIS BIRTH, POLITICS, AND STYLE. 

Demosthenes, born B.C. 385 

It was not merely the perfection of art or the 
instruction of schools, however accurate and skilful, 
which gave to oratory its consummate finish, and 
raised eloquence to the highest degree of perfection. 
Athenian oratory was finally developed by national 
dangers, political difficulties, and the death-struggles of 
Grecian independence. Study and art, and attention 
to the principles of style and the graces of language 



PERFECTION OF ORATORY. 135 

did much to form the eloquence of Demosthenes ; but 
it was the combination of vigour with grace that con- 
stituted the superiority of Athenian eloquence, as 
represented in his person. 

During the period of Athenian supremacy, when 
every citizen was inspired by one spirit of patriotism, 
and all politics, however different in principle, were 
absorbed in the promotion of national ascendancy, 
oratory exhibited itself in the practical wisdom of the 
statesman, or the sophistical flattery of the demagogue. 
But the case was totally altered by the party strife 
which prevailed in the time of Philip of Macedon. 
The object of the orator was no longer to enforce his 
views, whether right or wrong, of political expediency. 
In the midst of Athens there was now a party to 
whom anxiety for the welfare of their country was no 
longer a motive to which the orator could appeal, with 
any hope or prospect of success. Patriotism was dead 
in the bosoms of those w r ho composed this party : they 
were actually in the interest of their country's enemy. 
It was not simply party arrayed against party, each 
animated by different views, but both sincere. It was 
not the old opposition between aristocratic and demo- 
cratic principles. But the traitor was now fighting 
front to front with the patriotic lover of his country. 
The spirit, therefore, which animated the strife of 
words was like that which pervaded the field of battle. 
This, then, it was which caused those noble bursts of 
honest indignation, that ardent love of right and 
hatred of wrong, which abound in the orations of 



136 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Demosthenes, and which, although assisted by all the 
force and varied expression of the Attic tongue, com- 
mand our admiration far more than the language in 
which they are expressed. 

In the Attic borough of Pseania lived a wealthy 
sword-cutler, named Demosthenes. He died, leaving 
a son, aged seven years, who bore his name, and a 
daughter, two years younger. There is great difficulty 
in determining the exact date of Demosthenes' birth/ 
but the generally received opinion is that he was born 
in the archonship of Dexitheus. He bequeathed 
the care of his family, and the administration of 
his property, which amounted to fourteen talents — a 
handsome inheritance in the little state of Athens — 
to three guardians. 5 Such was the dishonesty and 
extravagance of these men, that only seventy mince 
(£280) remained when Demosthenes came of age. 
He immediately called his guardians to account for 
their mal-administration, but his experienced adver- 
saries put in force against him all the subtleties and 
delays of Athenian law; and notwithstanding two 
decisions in his favour, protracted the suit during three 
years. At length a verdict was given against them, 
with ten talents (£2,400) damages. 

As in the case of his predecessor Isocrates, the ruin 
of his fortunes proved the foundation of his fame. 
He had now only the resources of his own intellect to 
depend upon, and the cultivation of those talents 

a Plut. Vit. X. Or. See Phil. Mus. ii. p. 407. 
b Dem. c. Aphob. 



DEMOSTHENES AGAINST MIDIAS. 137 

which would enable him to protect himself against 
the dishonesty of his guardians. There is little pro- 
bability in the statement that he had in early life 
studied oratory under Isocrates, 3 still less in the 
assertion that he received no early education at all. 
The diligence and perseverance by which he overcame 
his natural imperfections are well known. Weakly 
in constitution, with an impediment in his speech, so 
great as to expose him to the nickname of fidrakoc, 
or " the stammerer," he prepared himself, by steady 
practice, to address, fearlessly and effectively, the 
stormy assemblage of six thousand Athenians. In 
the year B.C. 354, Demosthenes undertook the office 
of choregus, and discharged the duties of this expen- 
sive liturgy in a most public-spirited manner, and with 
unusual liberality. 

Owing to his attachment to the patriotic party in 
politics, he had incurred the hostility of Midias, an 
influential citizen, the head of a powerful and un- 
patriotic faction. 5 Midias assaulted him, during the 
Dionysiac festival ; and Demosthenes accordingly 
brought an action against him ; and on that occa- 
sion (b.c. 353) he composed one of his orations, which 
is still extant. It is, however, unfinished ; for, fearing 
the popular influence of his adversary, Demosthenes 
compromised the matter, on receiving as damages the 
sum of thirty mince (£120). 

He had already displayed his abilities as an orator 
on various public occasions, and in the previous year 
» Plut. Vit. X. Or. b Dem. c. Mid. 



138 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

he had opposed the expedition to Euboea, and had 
succeeded, by means of his oration, Ilegi Ivppogtw in 
preventing the Athenians from engaging in a war 
with Persia. The aggressive policy of Philip called 
forth his strong will and the energies of his indepen- 
dent and patriotic character, and stamped him as the 
leading statesman and orator of his day. In B.C. 358, 
the King of Macedon began that attack upon the 
northern maritime allies of Athens, the final object of 
which was to extinguish the liberties of Greece. In 
Demosthenes he found an unflinching and unyielding 
foe, who had the will and the power to rekindle into a 
flame the expiring spark of Athenian patriotism ; who 
could dare to tell his fellow-countrymen the truth, 
however unacceptable it might be ; who would not 
condescend to flatter their weakness, or to conceal 
from them their danger ; who was utterly fearless of 
personal consequences. He did not hesitate, at the 
peril of his life, to advocate the unpopular measure of 
diverting, to the purposes of the war against Philip/ 
the funds (Ssagixa) which were annually squandered on 
public festivals and theatrical representations; and when 
Philip made his attack upon Byzantium, he actually 
succeeded in getting his measure passed. 

The earnestness with which he pleaded the cause of 
the unhappy Olynthians (b.c. 349), and supported the 
prayer of their ambassadors for aid, was responded to by 
the assembly ; but, nevertheless, their measures were 
not of the decided kind which distinguished Athenian 
a Dem. Olynth. iii. 



OLINTHIACS AND PHILIPPICS. 139 

politics in former times ; and Olynthus at last fell by 
treachery. In the next event of his public career, the 
character of Demosthenes stands out in noble contrast 
with that of his rival, iEschines, the traitor to his 
country. Peace with Philip was absolutely necessary, 
and the far-sighted Demosthenes plainly saw that the 
sooner it was concluded the better. Delay in the 
negotiations would enable Philip to pursue, uninter- 
rupted, his schemes of aggrandisement. The wilful 
delay of iEschines, who was sent with an embassy to 
administer the oaths to the king, gave Philip the time 
he required. The wretched inhabitants of Phocis 
were sacrificed ; and, notwithstanding the Athenians 
refused their sanction, Philip was admitted a member 
of the Amphictyonic league. These events occasioned 
the orations Hsgi ElgrjvrjQ (b.c. 346), and that Uegl Ilccgcc- 
irgec&si'ccg (b.c. 343). In the latter he denounced the 
treachery of iEschines, but he escaped the punishment 
which he deserved. His Philippics belong to this 
period (b.c. 344, 342) : the terrible vehemence with 
which he attacked the ambition of the Macedonian 
monarch, the truthful energy with which he endea- 
voured to impress upon his hearers the necessity of 
a combined resistance on the part of all Greece, 
have caused their title to be given to the speeches 
of Cicero against Antony, and to all orations which 
consist of a spirited and bitter invective. The orator 
was unsuccessful, but the event proved that had 
Greek energy been equal to his, Greece might per- 
haps have warded off the blow. 



140 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Philip's influence in Greece was now so firmly estab- 
lished (b.c. 339), that he was elected general-in-chief 
of the Amphictyonic army. The next year was 
fought the disastrous battle of Chseronea, which left to 
Greece only the outward form and name of liberty. 
Over those who fell on this field, Demosthenes was 
selected to deliver the funeral oration. 

The ascendancy of Philip gave fresh strength to his 
party in Athens, which was headed by Demosthenes' 
rival, iEschines. It was at this conjuncture that 
Ctesiphon proposed that a golden crown should be 
decreed to Demosthenes in the theatre, at the Diony- 
siac festival, as a reward for his patriotism. iEschines 
immediately accused Ctesiphon of having proposed 
the conferring a reward in an illegal manner and an 
improper place, but his principal attack was made 
against the merits of Demosthenes. For eight years 
he deferred prosecuting the charge, and he was then 
(b.c. 330) answered by Demosthenes in the oration 
Heft ^ntpdvov. Demosthenes had scarcely finished his 
speech when iEschines threw up the cause. He did 
not obtain one-fifth of the votes, and, therefore, ac- 
cording to the law of Athens, was obliged to leave 
the country. 

When the rebel Harpalus fled to Athens, b.c. 325, 
with some of the treasure which Alexander had accu- 
mulated in his Asiatic expedition, Demosthenes is 
said to have been one of those who were bribed to 
afford him protection. There is little authority for 
the accusation, and when we consider the uprightness 



DEATH OF DEMOSTHENES. 141 

which always distinguished him, and the generosity 
with which he once, at his own expense, sent the 
Thebans a present of arms, the charge seems scarcely 
credible. The hostility of the Macedonian party is 
quite sufficient to account for the accusation, and 
their influence was strong enough to cause his con- 
demnation and imprisonment. He, however, escaped 
from his prison, and lived in exile until the death 
of Alexander (b.c. 323). 

This event inspired the Greeks with fresh hopes, 
which were raised still higher by the powerful oratory 
of Demosthenes : his ungrateful country recognised his 
value, and he was recalled from exile, and entered 
his native city in triumph. The hopes of Greece, 
however, were not destined to be realized, for Athens 
was left alone by her timid allies, and Antipater 
marched to Athens. 

Upon this Demosthenes fled to the temple of Po- 
seidon at Calauria, and there swallowed poison, which 
he was in the habit of carrying about his person. 

Saevus et ilium 
Exitus eripuit, quern mirabantur Athenae 
Torrentem, et pleni moderantem fraena theatri. 
Dis ille adversis genitus fatoque sinistro, 
Quern pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus 
A carbone, et forcipibus, gladiosque parante 
Incude, et luteo Vulcano ad rhetora misit. — Juv. x. 126. 

And he too fell whom Athens, wondering, saw 
Her fierce democracy at will o'erawe, 
And fulmine over Greece ! Some angry Power 
Scowled with dire influence on his natal hour. 



142 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Bleared with the glowing mass, the ambitious sire, 
From anvils, sledges, bellows, tongs, and fire, 
From tempering swords, his own more safe employ, 
To study rhetoric sent his hopeful boy. 

Gifpord. 

The honest truthfulness of his character, the careful 
study with which he prepared himself for his pro- 
fession, and the diligence with which he composed 
his orations, gave an impressiveness, vigour, and 
a conciseness to his style which have never been 
equalled. 

It is not unlike that of Thucydides, but is far 
superior in perspicuity. Cicero considers him inferior 
to Lycias and Hyperides in wit (cl(rrBiov,facetice)* and 
the skill with which he combines grace with vehe- 
mence, induces Dionysius to compare him with Lysias 
in beauty of language. 5 This criticism is not incor- 
rect, for his language is almost always refined, even 
where it is the most earnest; and wherever his plain- 
spoken honesty bears the appearance of harshness, no 
one would willingly exchange the forcible character 
which this impresses on his oratory for more graceful 
and polished sentences. 

Longinus thus concludes a panegyric upon the 
majesty and vehemence of his language, " It would 
be much easier to behold steadfastly the lightning's 
flash, than to gaze upon his passionate expressions, 
which so rapidly succeed one another." c 

a Cic. Orat. 26. b De admir. vi Dicend. Dem. 

c Longin. Sub. 34. 



LIFE OF jESCHINES. 143 

Action, manner, and delivery were thought by 
Demosthenes of greater importance than even mat- 
ter and style. When asked what was the chief thing 
in speaking, he gave to delivery, the first, second, and 
third places in relative importance. 21 His practice, in 
this respect, agreed with his theory ; for when iEschines 
read to the Rhodians, with unbounded applause, the 
speech of his rival in favour of Ctesiphon, he ex- 
claimed, " If you had heard him deliver it, how much 
greater would have been your admiration." He is 
said to have left sixty-five orations, and of these sixty 
are extant. 



iEscmNES, born b.c. 389. 

iEschines, the bitter enemy and rival of Demo- 
sthenes, is seldom mentioned by Cicero : he translated 
his orations against Ctesiphon, and TIegi Uccocc^sa&siccg, 
but the translations are lost. The principal charac- 
teristic which he ascribes to him is sonorous effect ; 
but this imperfectly describes the beauty and force of 
his oratory. Little inferior to Demosthenes in thought 
and language, he was far superior to him in natural 
gifts and qualifications. Three orations are extant, 
which prove that intellectually, although not morally, 
he was a worthy antagonist. 

jJEschines was a native of Attica. Of his parentage 
we have little certain information. His adversary, 
Demosthenes, represents his father as having been a 
a Cic. de Orat. iii. 56. 



144 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

slave, and afterwards a petty schoolmaster, 3 and his 
mother is said to have been a dancer, of loose cha- 
racter. iEschines, on the contrary, asserts that his 
father was a man of good family, and his mother a 
free-born Athenian citizen. 5 

Whatever may have been the true state of the 
case, his family achieved distinction ; for his elder 
brother, Philochares, was for three years one of the 
ten Athenian generals, and Aphobetus, his younger 
brother, was entrusted with a mission to Persia. 

The earliest notice which we have respecting Ma- 
chines is, that he acted as an assistant in a small 
school kept by his father, and also in the gymnasium. 
Like other Athenian youths, he served from his 
eighteenth to his twentieth year in the ■ wsgfookoi, — a 
body of young men who garrisoned the fortresses on 
the frontier and coast of Attica. After that he was 
secretary to the orator Aristophon, and subsequently 
to Eubulus, whose democratical sentiments had great 
influence on the political principles of iEschines. He 
then made an unsuccessful attempt as an actor, and 
afterwards served his country as a soldier, in which 
capacity, having distinguished himself at Mantinea, 
and other battles, he was, according to his own ac- 
count, rewarded with a crown. c 

When he came forward as a speaker in the as- 
sembly, his democratic principles, knowledge of public 
business, and military reputation, so recommended 
him to his countrymen, that he was, on three occasions, 
a Dem. de Corona. b De Fals. Leg. c Ibid. 



iESCHINES, HYPER1DES. 145 

employed as ambassador between the Athenians and 
Philip. Notwithstanding all that has been urged in 
his defence, there can be little doubt that he was 
far more zealous in advancing the interests of the 
Macedonian king, than in promoting the welfare of 
his country. 

On two occasions, B.C. 346 and B.C. 340, iEschines 
was, by Philip's influence, delegated as pylagoras from 
Athens to the Amphictyonic council, and his advice 
led to the utter destruction of the ill-fated Locrians. 
The first decided blow to the political influence of 
iEschines was struck by the oration of Demosthenes, 
Usft Uccocc^efT^siccc, which was published, but not spoken; 
the oration, Hsfi Urstpdvov, finally decided his fate, and 
he went into exile to Asia Minor, and afterwards 
established a school of rhetoric in Rhodes. 

He died at Samos B.C. 314, and of the numerous 
orations which he wrote and delivered, only three 
were published, and these are all still extant. 

Hyperides, born B.C. 396 (?). 

Little as there is known respecting Hyperides either 
as a politician or an orator, there can be no doubt 
that he may justly be compared with his staunch friend 
Demosthenes for uncompromising and self-denying 
patriotism. Trained in philosophy by Plato, and edu- 
cated as an orator in the school of Isocrates, he was 
distinguished for acute reasoning ; a and, like Lysias, for 

a Pe Orat. iii. 7 ; Orator, 26. 
VOL. II. L 



146 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

that graceful wit (Gr. ccereiorrjg, Lat. facetice), the 
principles of which modern taste finds it so difficult 
to comprehend, and on the nature of which Roman 
and Greek taste differed, as may be seen, by com- 
paring the theory of Aristotle with that of Cicero. a 

On all occasions he was a firm and strenuous oppo- 
nent of Philip's party, and when Harpalus came to 
Athens he was the only man in Athens unsuspected of 
corruption, The acknowledged uprightness of Hype- 
rides, and the fact that on this occasion he came 
forward to accuse Demosthenes of having received the 
money of Harpalus, are the only circumstances which 
cast the slightest suspicion on the otherwise spotless 
character of the great orator ; but as the motives 
which actuated the conduct of Demosthenes are 
entirely unknown, and the friendship which existed 
between him and Hyperides was only temporarily 
interrupted, it may fairly be supposed that, although 
there were sufficient grounds to warrant suspicion, and 
consequently this breach between the two patriots, the 
charge was proved groundless, and the fair fame of 
Demosthenes reestablished to the satisfaction of his 
friends. 

After the battle of Cranon (b.c. 322) when Athens 
submitted to the disgrace of a Macedonian garrison 
taking possession of Munychia, Hyperides fled to 
JEgina. But his invincible hostility to the enemies 
of his country made him a mark for the vengeance of 
the conqueror. The soldiers of Antipater pursued 
a Arist. Rhet. ; Cic. de Orat. ii. 62, 63. 



CRITICISM OF LONGINUS. 147 

him to the place of his exile, and put him to death, 
after cutting out that tongue whose eloquence had 
so long denounced Athenian treachery and Macedo- 
nian ambition. 3 Out of sixty-one orations known to 
have been composed by him, only fragments remain, b 
of which the longest is a part of the funeral ora- 
tion delivered by him in the Ceramicus in honour 
of Leosthenes, and those who fell in the Lamian 
war. c 

The following is the opinion entertained by Lon- 
ginus respecting the style of this good man and 
accomplished orator. 

" If excellencies are to be estimated by their num- 
ber, rather than their real quality, Hyperides would 
altogether surpass Demosthenes, for he has more 
variety and a greater number of beauties. In all 
these, he is all but the first ; like a competitor in the 
games who is second in his contests with all the 
professional combatants, but beats all the amateurs. 
For Hyperides, besides imitating all the excellencies 
of Demosthenes in everything except arrangement, 
has added the beauties and graces of Lysias. Where 
simplicity is required, lie excels in softness, nor has 
he the monotony of Demosthenes. His style is full of 
character, his expression sweet and harmonious. His 
wit is inexpressibly refined, his irony polished and 
gentleman-like, his jests neither far-fetched nor un- 
graceful. He is skilful in evading an argument; his 

a B.C. 322. b Stobaei Floril. cxxiv. 36. 

c Diod. xiii. 13. 

l 2 



148 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

satire sportive, yet pungent and well-aimed ; his comic 
humour inimitable. 

"His style is touching and full of feeling. Yet, 
notwithstanding his good points are numerous, they 
are deficient in grandeur and spirit ; they are inef- 
fective, and do not produce great and startling emotions 
in the hearer." a 

Demades. 

From the honest patriot we turn to one who rose 
by the prostitution of brilliant natural talents to fraud 
and treachery. Demades, b we are told, was a common 
sailor; and hence perhaps the metaphor used by Plu- 
tarch, when he calls him the shipwreck of his country. 
His extraordinary natural powers rendered him in- 
dependent of the rules of art, and a ready and sharp 
debater; and his effective extempore speaking, formed 
a striking exception to the practice prevalent amongst 
his contemporaries of previously preparing their ora- 
tions with great study and diligence. 

Unprincipled as a politician, and profligate in his 

private character, 6 he did not scruple to supply means 

for his extravagant pleasures by selling his influence 

to any one who would purchase it. Not only, like the 

rest of his party, did he enrich himself by Philip's 

gold, but on one occasion he could so far conquer or 

dissemble his hostility to Demosthenes, as to receive 

a bribe of five talents on condition of using his in- 

a Long, de Sub. 34. b Suidas, s. v. ; Quinct. ii. 17. 

c Cic. Orat. 26 ; Brut. 9. d Ath. ii. 44. 



FINANCIAL ABILITY OF LYCURGtJS. 149 

flueuee to rescue him and his friends when demanded 
by Alexander/- As he rose by treachery, so he fell 
by insincerity. Antipater discovered among the 
papers of Perdiccas some letters signed by Demades, 
advising him to attack the former. Accordingly he 
caused him and his son Demeas to be put to death 
(b.c. 319). 

Lycurgus, born b.c. 405. 

Lycurgus b was an Athenian citizen of the noble 
family of the Eteobutadae. His father. Lycophron, 
was put to death by the Thirty Tyrants. In his 
youth a zealous and distinguished pupil of Plato 
and Isocrates, his manhood was passed in an inti- 
mate friendship with the uncompromising and patri- 
otic Demosthenes. Well-deserving as he is of the 
place assigned to him by Plutarch amongst the 
ten Athenian orators, he is still more celebrated 
for his administrative talents and his unimpeach- 
able integrity. Three times successively his fellow- 
citizens elected him minister of finance, and thus 
for fifteen years he had the control of the public 
revenue. So successful was his administration, that 
he raised the revenue to the highest point which it 
had ever attained, and his employment of the resources 
thus placed at his disposal was equally judicious. 
He strengthened the defences of the city, reinforced 

a Died. xvii. 1-5. 
b Plut. Yit. X. Or. : Suidas \ Matthias, Hist or Literature. 



150 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the fleet, and embellished Athens with many public 
buildings. 

Amongst the many anecdotes recorded of Lycurgus 
by Plutarch, one bears testimony to the high value 
which he set upon a moral and virtuous education. 
When blamed by some one for squandering large 
sums on the sophists, he is said to have answered 
that if any one would undertake to make his sons 
better than himself, he would willingly lavish upon 
him half his fortune. His sons were probably worthy 
of his paternal care and high character, for on both 
himself and his eldest son the high honour of public 
entertainment in the Prytaneum was conferred as 
a reward for his public services. At his death a he 
was honoured with a public funeral, and a brazen 
statue was erected to him in the Ceramicus ; a reward 
which he himself had caused to be decreed to the 
three great tragedians. 

Suidas b asserts that he left fifteen orations, besides 
letters and some other minor works. Of these only one 
entire oration and a few fragments now remain. With- 
out much grace, or power, or elegance, his style is that 
of a straightforward upright man, of sound practical 
habits and strict virtuous principles. 

Dinarchus, born B.C. 360. 

Dinarchus was the last of the ten orators of Athens, 
and he owes his celebrity not so much to his own 

a b.c. 323. b Suidas, s. v. 



STYLE OF DINARCHUS. 151 

abilities, as to the rapid decline of oratory, which 
synchronizes with his rise to eminence, and, therefore, 
left him without rivals. He was born at Corinth, 
and as his foreign origin disqualified him for the 
public occupations of an Athenian citizen, he em- 
ployed his talents in writing speeches for other orators 
to deliver. His attachment to the Macedonian 
party rendered him an object of popular suspicion, 
and having amassed great wealth by his literary 
works he fled to Chalcis in Euboea. At length, his 
instructor, Theophrastus, enabled him, by his influence, 
to return to his adopted country. Some authorities 
assert that he composed one [hundred and sixty ora- 
tions, others only sixty, and of these only three are 
now extant. Although some critics have entertained 
a high opinion of his oratorical talents, the artificial 
character of his style stamps him as a skilful imitator 
of Demosthenes, rather than as possessing genius and 
originality. 

Such were the rise and progress of Greek oratory, 
and such the principal professors of that art. A study 
of the specimens which are still extant strikes us with 
admiration of the varied talents, the diligent study, 
the extensive knowledge, the accurate acquaintance 
with human nature, the logical acuteness, the com- 
mand of language which must have been demanded as 
the qualifications of an Athenian orator, and which 
are so abundantly exhibited in their compositions. 



152 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PHILOSOPHY FLOURISHED LATER THAN LITERATURE. DIOGENES OF 

APOLLONIA.— HIS PHYSICAL THEORY. — ANAXAGORAS. HIS CHARAC- 
TER, AND PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM. HIS INCONSISTENCIES. — HIS 

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. HIS SYSTEM COMPARED WITH THAT 

OF HIS PREDECESSORS. PARMENIDES. THE TIME OF HIS BIRTH 

UNCERTAIN. CELEBRATED AS A LEGISLATOR. A MORAL POET 

RATHER THAN A PHILOSOPHER. HIS VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE 

MOURNFUL. ZENO. HIS CONNEXION WITH PARMENIDES. — FOUNDER 

OF DIALECTICS. HIS FALLACIES. HIS PHYSICS. MELISSUS. HIS 

SYSTEM A NEGATIVE ONE. — HIS PHYSICS NEARLY THOSE OF THE 
ELEATIC SCHOOL. EMPEDOCLES. SOME OF HIS DOCTRINES PYTHA- 
GOREAN. — HE IS SAID TO HAVE INVENTED RHETORIC. FABLE 

MIXED UP WITH HIS LIFE. HE REFUSED THE TYRANNY. HIS 

DOCTRINE OF THE DEITY. — NECESSITY. THE ELEMENTS. 

The flourishing period of Greek literature generally, 
and of Greek philosophical literature, do not exactly 
coincide. Philosophy, as might be expected from the 
progress of the human intellect and the development 
of its powers, is somewhat later in coming to perfec- 
tion. When the Attic drama was represented by 
iEschylus, philosophy may be considered to have been 
still almost in its infancy; it did not arrive at the 
prime of its existence until the time of Socrates : with 
him it began to flourish. 



PHYSICAL THEORY OF DIOGENES. 153 

Diogenes of Apollonia, flourished b.c. 498. 

The earliest philosopher belonging to the literary 
era now under consideration was Diogenes. He was 
a native of Apollonia in Crete, a and was attached to 
the dynamical section of the Ionian school. The 
strong resemblance of his theories to those of Anaxi- 
menes, make it highly probable that he was one of 
his disciples. If, as is said, he was a contemporary 
of Anaxagoras, he must have flourished about B.C. 498. 

His physical theory was, that all things originated 
in one First Cause, or elementary principle ; that this 
original essence underwent continual changes, and 
by the reciprocal influence of the results one upon 
the other, not only new phenomena were developed, 
but these, in their turn, were again resolved into that 
which was their common origin. The universe, there- 
fore, contained within itself an inherent and spon- 
taneous vitalitv. Life was the soul, and from observ- 
ing the cause of vitality, both animal and vegetable, 
he concluded that the soul was air. b The inseparable 
property of this living being was consciousness and 
reason. He evidently, therefore, confuses air, the 
first cause of motion, with reason, which is the prin- 
ciple of consciousness. He taught that tbe order 
which prevailed in the physical universe originates 
in an intelligent First Cause, because he assumed that 
order could be the result of intelligence alone. b 

a Dioo\ Laert. ix. b Arist. de An. i. 2. 



154 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE 

The advance which philosophy had now made con- 
sisted in this, that to the principle of animation held 
by Anaximenes, and to the simple vital energy main- 
tained by Thales, was now added that of intellect. 
A soul was attributed to the universe, of precisely the 
same nature as the human soul. Diogenes had not 
arrived at the idea of a personal intelligent First 
Cause, directing the order of Nature, but only at that 
of a principle of rationality pervading Nature itself. 
His first principle was air; this was capable of as- 
suming various forms by an inherent power of spon- 
taneous change. As far as can be determined from 
the few scattered fragments of his philosophy which 
remain, the mode by which solid matter was produced 
was by condensation. The original air was warm, a and 
this, cooled and condensed towards the central point, 
produced the earth. From his theory that the uni- 
verse was an animated and rational being, it followed 
as a corollary that all things possessed intelligence, 
and that wherever it was not discernible, it never- 
theless was present in a latent state. Hence the 
inferior animals were endowed with a reasonable 
soul, but external circumstances impeded its exercise. 
His style of writing is said by Diogenes Laertius 
to have united dignity with simplicity. Diogenes 
completes the list of the dynamical philosophers 
belonging to the Ionian school. We now proceed 
with the history of the mechanical philosophers. 

a Diog. Laert. ix. 57. 



PERSECUTION OF ANAXAGORAS. 155 

Anaxagoras, born B.C. 500 (?). 

Anaxagoras of Clazomene was born Olymp. lxx. l, a 
or, according to other authorities, Olymp. lxvii. b Early 
in life he went to Athens, for the purposes of 
study, where amongst his distinguished disciples were 
numbered Pericles and Euripides. So devoted was 
he to philosophical investigation, deeming this the 
only worthy employment of life, c that, although 
wealthy and of high birth, political life had no charms 
for him, d and he even allowed his private affairs to 
fall into confusion. This involved him in want and 
poverty in his old age, and when the policy of Pericles 
became unpopular, his friendship with that great man 
exposed him to persecution, together with the rest 
who adhered to those political principles. Like 
Socrates, he was accused of impiety, probably because 
his philosophical theories were necessarily inconsistent 
with the mythical superstitions of the popular reli- 
gion, and because he attempted to account for them 
by a moral and allegorical explanation. He was im- 
prisoned, and at length, compelled to fly for safety 
to Lampsacus. He died Olymp. lxxxviii., and the 
Lampsaceni instituted an annual feast in his honour. 

His mathematical acquirements, as well as his 
knowledge of astronomy, are said to have been suf- 
ficient to enable him to make some approach towards 
discovering the cause of both solar and lunar eclipses. 

* Diog. Laerfc. ri. b Wyttenb. Bibl. cr. 

c Eth. Nic. x. 9. d Cic. Tusc. v. 39. 



156 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The fundamental principle of his physical theory 
was, that there could be no essential change or deve- 
lopment of one thing from another, and no increase 
or diminution in the number of things, but that all 
production was caused by the mixture of the simple 
elements, and all destruction by the separation of 
them. These simple elements were infinite in number, 
and infinitely differing from each other, but the con- 
stituent particles of composite essences were homo- 
geneous, and similar to the whole which was com- 
posed of them. They were also not cognizable by the 
external senses. The terms by which Anaxagoras de- 
signated them were roc aogccra 0^010^71 and t]\jav awiafyru. 

The original condition of all things, he maintained, 
was one of confusion and disorder, and the order of 
Nature was due to the existence of a moving force 
imparting motion, which, deriving his ideas from that 
of the heavenly bodies, he considered circular. This 
motive cause was intelligence (vovg), and existed 
from all eternity. By attributing order, and there- 
fore creation, and all that is beautiful and just in 
morals, to an Intelligent Cause, he at once denied the 
doctrines of chance and necessity, and when he called 
necessity (s/^a^g^) an empty term {ovo^a zzvov), he 
used an argument similar to that by which Butler 
proved the absurdity of ascribing effects to a power 
which was but an unreal abstraction. The part of 
his system most manifestly open to objection is, that 
by making intellect the only cause of arrangement 
he contradicts himself, because he must necessarily 



INCONSISTENCIES OF HIS SYSTEM, 157 

assume other first causes amongst those elements, to 
which motion is imparted by intellect. The shrewd 
and observant mind of Aristotle 3 did not fail to 
observe this fallacy. When he attempts to carry his 
general principles into the investigation of the causes 
which lead to individual phenomena, their inapplica- 
bility, and the consequent inconsistency of his philo- 
sophical system, become more strikingly manifest. 
Matter appears then to be separated entirely from 
influence of mind, and the existence of causes to be 
arbitrarily assumed. 

In addition to these considerations, if the language, 
in which Anaxagoras speaks of his moviDg force, is 
accurately examined, he seems to draw a distinction 
between the universal mind and the particular mind, 
which he designates soul (-^vyj), and thus he de- 
stroys the unity of that principle which is the funda- 
mental ground of his system. 5 

His theory of sensation, according to which external 
impressions act upon the mind and set it in motion, 
also contradicts the independent and absolute exist- 
ence of mind as the first and original cause, and 
makes it a force which depends for its activity on 
corporeal organization. 

His theory of the mode by which knowledge is 
attained by man is in harmony and consistency with 
his system. As the elementary 6^010^^ are not 
cognizable by the senses, by the intellect alone we 
are able to arrive at truth. His view is, that the 
a Arist. Met. i. 4. b Ibid, de An. i. 2. 



158 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

idea formed by the senses of sensible objects is an 
inadequate one, and consequently untrue. He was 
not so impractical as to undervalue the importance of 
impressions upon the senses, but he would only allow 
that they were helps and aids towards the discovery 
of truth. From the observed imperfection of the 
senses he was deeply impressed with the depth of 
human ignorance as compared with the vast range of 
subjects to be known. 

Liable as the system of Anaxagoras undoubtedly is 
to the objections which lie against those of his pre- 
decessors, on the ground of arbitrary assumptions and 
inconsistencies, his conclusions are generally logically 
drawn, even when his premisses are false. The care 
with which he endeavours to establish a logical con- 
nexion between cause and effect renders him deserving 
of the respect with which his views are generally 
treated both by Aristotle and Cicero ; and to him 
Athens is indebted for the first introduction of philo- 
sophical study into that city. The approach, however 
imperfect, which he made towards a belief in an 
intelligent First Cause as the author and arranger of 
the universe, marks an important epoch in the pro- 
gress of philosophy, as the beauty of his style imparted 
a new grace to Greek prose composition. 

Parmenides, born (about) B.C. 520. 

Various accounts are given respecting the period at 
which Parmenides flourished. He was a native of 



PARMENIDES A LEGISLATOR AND PHILOSOPHER. 159 

Elea and a member of the school established in that 
city, and, according to Plato and Aristotle, a the most 
celebrated of the Eleatic philosophers. Aristotle 
states, that he was said to have been a pupil of Xeno- 
pbanes. b In order to reconcile this tradition with the 
statement of Plato, that he came to Athens in the 
sixty-fifth year of his age, and there met with So- 
crates, Ritter assumes his birth to have been about 
01. lxv. Matthise, on the authority of Fulleborn, 
states that he flourished about B.C. 464. 

As a legislator he was no less famous than as a 
philosopher. His code was so highly appreciated by 
his fellow-citizens that they took an oath every year 
to observe his laws. 

Many fragments of his poem Tlegt Qvaeaj^ a sub- 
ject which includes what in modern times are called 
metaphysical, as well as physical speculations, have 
been preserved. It is no easy task to elicit a philo- 
sophical system from the metaphorical and allegorical 
language of poetry, and the didactic mind of the 
legislator and moral poet is perceptible in the poem, 
rather than the logical analysis, which characterizes 
the philosopher. According to Parmenides, that 
which is, is self-produced, uncreated, and unchange- 
able ; nor is there such a thing as that which is not 
(ro (Jb?j ov). Hence, he denies the existence of a 
vacuum, as that implies non-existence ; and, as motion 
implies change, that which is, is in a state of complete 

a Plat. Theat.j Arist. Met. b Arist. Met. i. 5. 

c Fiilleb. Beytragen, vi. 



160 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and eternal rest. The form which he attributes to 
it is the spherical, as being the most perfect and 
symmetrical. That which is, and the fulness of it, 
constitute the intellectual faculty, and its object ; for 
these are one and the same. 

Tavrbv <? tan votlv re ical ovvekbv tan vutj/ua (v. 95). 

Of that which is, he assumed two opposite species ; 
of one, the properties were light and heat ; of the 
other, cold and darkness. The order of the universe 
is produced and maintained by the combination or 
separation of these opposite elements, through the 
instrumentality of two causes, Love and Discord ; of 
which doctrine he considered the division of the 
human race into two sexes as typical. 

His view of human nature was a mournful one; 
man is, according to all the philosophers of this 
school, but a portion of the phenomenal and transi- 
tory, not of the eternal ; the soul is material, and 
composed of the four elements, and he is subject to an 
irresistible necessity. 

Zeno, flourished (about) B.C. 464. 

Zeno was a member of the Eleatic school, a 
disciple of Parmenides, at the same time with 
Empedocles of Agrigentum. He showed his attach- 
ment to his instructor by writing a treatise in 
defence of his metaphysical theories. This work, 
the object of which was to support the doctrine of 



PARADOXES OF ZENO. 161 

one First Cause, enjoyed a high reputation amongst 
the ancients. He was not only a philosopher, but 
took an active part in the public affairs of his country, 
and, according to Strabo, a assisted Parmenides in his 
legislation. He engaged in a conspiracy against the 
tyrant of Elea, and, being discovered, was put to the 
torture. It is said that he bore his sufferings with 
the utmost fortitude, and bit off his tongue rather 
than be tempted to betray his associates. 1 * 

He is principally interesting to us as the first who 
arranged his arguments in the form of dialogue, and 
as the inventor of dialectic science, so far as this, 
that his conclusions were logically deduced from 
axioms or principles universally admitted to be 
true. 

In the time of Zeno, science seems already to have 
assumed the form of amusement and pastime, as well 
as of serious investigation. The four celebrated argu- 
ments by which he endeavoured to prove the infinite 
divisibility of space, d and to disprove the reality of 
motion, are of that paradoxical nature, which puzzles 
whilst it does not convince, and the fallacy of them, 
though difficult to refute, is so manifest that it can 
hardly be supposed they were seriously maintained. 
Bitter 6 explains the fallacy of his reasoning in all 
these arguments, by stating that whilst Zeno main- 
tains the infinite divisibility of space, he neglects 
that of time. 

a Strabo, vi. 1. b Cic. Tusc. ii. 22. c Arist. Top. i. 1. 

d Ibid. Pbys. vi. 9. e Gescb. Pbil. v. 4. 

VOL. II. M 



162 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The popular fallacy of Achilles and the tortoise, 
which is the second of these four, is well known, and 
is exposed by Archbishop Whately in the following 
manner : — 

" Aldrich a purposes to remove the difficulty in this 
sophistical puzzle, by demonstrating that, in a certain 
given time, Achilles would overtake the tortoise, as 
if any one had ever doubted that. The very problem 
proposed is to surmount the difficulty of a seeming 
demonstration of a thing palpably impossible ; to show 
that it is palpably impossible is no solution of the 
problem. 

"I have heard the present example adduced as a 
proof that the pretensions of logic are futile, since 
(it was said) the most perfect logical demonstration 
may lead from true premisses to an absurd conclusion. 
The reverse is the truth. The example before us 
furnishes a confirmation of the utility of an acquaint- 
ance with the syllogistic form ; in which form the 
pretended demonstration in question cannot possibly 
be exhibited. An attempt to do so will evince the 
utter want of connexion between the premisses and 
the conclusion." 

In physics the four elements, the existence of which 
he assumed, are almost coincident with those usually 
admitted by the Eleatic school, namely, the warm 
(S-s^w), the cold (-^v%g6v), the dry (%qgov), and the 
moist (vygov). The moving force was necessity, its 
two species, love and contention, and of these four 
a Whately's Logic, Append, p. 347. 



ONLY ONE WORK OF MELISSUS. 163 

elements, combined in various proportions, he held 
that the human soul was composed. The divine 
character of an individual soul depended upon the 
predominance of the purer elements in its compo- 
sition. 

Melissus, flourished (about) B.C. 428. 

Melissus was an Ionian, a native and inhabitant 
of Samos. His opinions, therefore, were probably 
derived from a study of the works, and not from the 
personal instructions of the Eleatic philosophers. He 
commanded the Samians in a naval battle against 
the Athenian fleet under Pericles, 01. lxxxviii. 1, B.C. 
428, and defeated them. The only work which he 
wrote was in prose, and its subject was "of Nature 
and that which Is" (Ilsf/ Qvceoog %u) rov "Ovrog). & The 
views which it contains are those of Xenophanes on 
the unity of the First Cause, but more clearly and 
perspicuously developed and expressed than was 
possible in the figurative language of poetry. But, 
although his sentiments are clearly expressed, and it 
is not difficult to see what his meaning is, the 
reasoning by which he deduces his conclusions is vague 
and unsatisfactory. It would be uninteresting to 
examine the fallacy of his arguments, and therefore 
it will be sufficient to state the results at which he 
arrives. That which is (ro Yov), the First Cause, is one, 
unchangeable, indivisible; there is no vacuum, and 

a Brandis, Comm. Eleat. 

m 2 



164 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

therefore do motion. As that which is is indivisible 
it must therefore be incorporeal. It is not cognizable 
by the senses, because all things which are the objects 
of sensuous perception are liable to change. Hence, 
as nothing exists except that which is, all that we 
perceive by the senses is non-existent. 

It is evident that the system of Melissus is a purely 
negative one, and therefore a characteristic represen- 
tative of the tendencies of the Eleatic school. He 
attributed no positive qualities to anything in Nature. a 
As he does not appear to have had any conception 
of a pure intellectual existence, he cannot be con- 
sidered as the founder of idealism, but only as having 
prepared the way for it by denying every other species 
of existence. 

His physical theories nearly coincided with those 
of the Eleatic school. That which is, is alone infinite, 
but all else finite. The order of Nature is governed 
by necessity, subdivided into the two antagonist forces 
of love and strife, and the elements are the four 
commonly adopted. 

Empedocles, born (about) B.C. 444. 

Empedocles b was born about Olymp. lxxxiv., in 
the Dorian colony of Agrigentum, which was at 
that time in its most flourishing condition. As was 
the case with many others, the easy circumstances 

a Hitter, v. 5 ; see note. 
b Simpl. Phys. ; Diog. Laert. ; Suidas. 



PHILOSOPHY OF EMPEDOCLES. 165 

and high rank of the family to which he belonged 
furnished him with the leisure to devote himself to 
philosophical studies. Sufficient traces may be dis- 
covered in his fragments of Pythagorean doctrines to 
prove that he adopted some tenets of that school ; but 
the most trustworthy authorities assert that he was a 
disciple of Parmenides, and although not precisely 
identical, his physical theories are evidently derived 
from those of the Eleatic school. 

The title of his work, of which fragments have 
come down to us, is Uegi <Pv<reag ; and, like the gnomic 
poems of Parmenides, is written in epic verse. The 
enthusiasm of poetical language is a bad vehicle for 
philosophical doctrines, and hence it is not surprising 
that Aristotle a blames him for assertions unsupported 
by reasoning. 

His name has also been connected with the history 
of oratory. Bitter considers that the tradition of 
his being the inventor of rhetoric b originated in a 
misunderstanding; or that the assertion was made 
by Aristotle, because he was the teacher of Gor- 
gias; but it is not improbable that there is in it 
some foundation of truth. History proves that elo- 
quence and liberty flourish and decline together. 
Eloquence withers under despotical sway or oligarchal 
institutions. In the democratic states of Sicily, when 
Empedocles flourished, it had been for some time 
cultivated as an art, and when an art is cultivated 
it is not long before it is systematized and taught 
* Arist. Phys. viii. 1. b Cic. Brut. 12, 64 ; Quinct. iii. 1. 



166 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

as a science. The usual tradition, therefore, that this 
scientific treatment of rhetoric is to be attributed 
to Empedocles, as well as to Corax and Tisias, 
becomes far from improbable. It may easily be im- 
agined that one who, even in a philosophical poem, 
displayed such elegant taste, power of language, and 
correctness of ear as Empedocles, would have pos- 
sessed, not only considerable eloquence, but also an 
accurate critical judgment respecting the principles of 
oratory. 

With the accounts of his life and character there 
is a large admixture of fable. In his poem he claims 
almost divine honours, as possessing supernatural 
knowledge respecting the operations of Nature, the 
power of healing disease, and the gift of prophecy ; 
and even in his dress he affected a priestly and 
sacred character. His superior knowledge doubtless 
gained for him a reputation higher than he deserved, 
and just as a knowledge of magical arts was attributed 
to philosophers in the middle ages, so tradition 
ascribed to him a miraculous power over the laws 
of Nature. 

It is said a that when his fellow-citizens offered 
him the tyranny of Agrigentum, to which his wealth, 
worth, and abilities gave him a fair claim, he refused 
the honour, preferring a life of retirement and study. 
As the incidents of his life were exaggerated by fable, 
so many equally fabulous accounts are extant of his 
death. Timseus gives that which is most probable, 
a Diog. Laert. viii. 63. 



HIS IDEAS OF GOD. 167 

namely, that being exiled from his native city, he 
died somewhere in the Peloponnese. 

The Deity, according to Empedocles, is ineffable, 
incorruptible, incapable of representation; but whilst 
in this negative aspect of his system he denies form, he 
also, like the other philosophers of this school — which 
was in all its tendencies pantheistic — denies person- 
ality. Although God is the all-ruling, yet he ascribes 
the same attribute and divine nature to the uniting 
and all-pervading force of love. In other places 
Deity is pure abstract intellect, the one First Cause ; 
but truth, the object of intellect, is described in the 
same terms, and as this unity and perfection are sup- 
posed to reside in the central part of the universe, 
and to be symbolized by a sphere, the ancients sup- 
posed the sphere to be the god of Empedocles. The 
truth is, his leading idea was that Deity is manifested 
in his works, and that though immaterial and not 
subject to the cognizance of the senses, he is revealed 
and developed in the material and the sensible. The 
laws, or moving forces of love and strife, constitute 
Necessity, to which all things are subject. 

The elements of the material universe are the usual 
four, of which fire is the purest, and out of these are 
compounded the phenomena of Nature. These phe- 
nomena are classified as warm and cold, of which 
the two sexes are symbolical. One can plainly 
recognize in his system the idea prevalent in the 
Eleatic school, of two opposing forces in Nature by 
which the balance seems to be maintained. They had 



168 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

a vague notion that combination and equilibrium are 
the result of antagonism ; that the two great forces 
of Nature are attraction and repulsion. The same 
duality which is supposed to exist in the forces of 
Nature, distinguishes also the elements on which 
they act. Homogeneous particles are separated and 
dissolved by the force of strife, and therefore exist- 
ence and vitality are thus destroyed, whereas love 
binds these together. Again, strife has likewise a 
productive energy, for, by separating heterogeneous 
particles it combines them with those that are akin 
to them. 

Such is a brief account of the philosophers of the 
Eleatic school, and the theories which they main- 
tained. The two aspects from which they viewed the 
subjects of human knowledge, sometimes led them 
into inconsistencies with each other and with them- 
selves, and their tendency to examine the truth and 
falsehood of preceding theories, rather than to investi- 
gate the natural phenomena themselves, invests their 
philosophy with a negative rather than a positive 
character. But nevertheless, this school, as the de- 
tector and exposer of error, marks an important epoch 
in philosophy, and its very defects and incompetency 
paved the way for more extensive and interesting 
investigations. 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF EARLY SCHOOLS. 169 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE EARLY GREEK SCHOOLS OF NO 
VALUE. THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH MENTAL AND MORAL PHI- 
LOSOPHY. PROGRESS OF THESE BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY. 

ATHENS NOW THE SEAT OF PHILOSOPHY. CAUSES WHICH LED TO 

HER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL AS WELL AS POLITICAL SUPRE- 
MACY. WHY HISTORY TOOK PRECEDENCE OF PHILOSOPHY AT ATHENS. 

— REVIEW OF THE STATE OF PHILOSOPHY. THE SOPHISTS. — THEY 

IMPROVED GREEK PROSE, AND DIRECTED MAN TO THE STUDY OF 

HIMSELF. THE CHARACTER OF THE TIMES AT WHICH THEY 

FLOURISHED. STATE OF EDUCATION. THE SOPHISTS BECAME THE 

PUBLIC INSTRUCTORS. THEIR ABILITIES. HOW THEY PERFORMED 

THEIR FUNCTIONS. EVIDENCE^OF THE EXISTENCE OF " SOPHISTICAL " 

TEACHING. THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE PHILOSOPHERS ARE COR- 
RECT IN THEIR ESTIMATE OF THE SOPHISTS. THE FACT THAT SO 

LITTLE REMAINS OF THEIR WORKS PROVES THAT THEY WERE OF 
LITTLE VALUE. 

It is evident from the preceding pages that the 
natural philosophy of the early Greek schools is, scien- 
tifically, worthless. It is valuable historically, as a 
monument of human labour and intellectual insfe- 
nuity, and as illustrating the active powers of human 
thought. But the philosopher started in most in- 
stances from arbitrary assumptions, unreal hypotheses, 
and preconceived ideas of fitness ; he was misled by 
imaginary analogies, which were also pressed beyond 
the bounds of probability, instead of carefully observ- 



170 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ing natural phenomena. His labours, therefore, were 
fruitless, although they can never be uninteresting or 
contemptible. 

Even where a strictly inductive method is pur- 
sued, physical science must, from the nature of the 
case, make slow progress, and theories which appear 
well grounded and logically deduced, as far as the 
knowledge of the premisses admitted, are liable to be 
overthrown and superseded by the progress of obser- 
vation and scientific discovery; and hence, in the 
investigation of physical truth each generation must 
necessarily surpass in knowledge the preceding one. 

But the case is different with respect to moral 
and mental philosophy. The human mind was as 
accessible a subject of investigation to the ancient as 
it is to the modern. Each philosopher who possessed 
sufficient ability had within himself the subject which 
he was studying, and therefore by investigating the 
principles of that nature with which he became 
acquainted through his own individual consciousness, 
he could discover its phenomena and the nature of its 
operation. He could thus become an acute logician and 
a skilful metaphysician. Again, the same course of 
study, combined with a practical knowledge of human 
nature, as exhibited in men's social relations, would 
enable him to investigate the subject of man's highest 
good and true happiness, so far at any rate as this life 
is concerned, and so far as is possible without the aid 
of Divine revelation. The value, therefore, of Greek 
mental and moral philosophy must always remain 



ATHENS THE HOME OF PHILOSOPHY. 171 

unchangeable ; it can never be superseded by modern 
investigations; and hence all modern systems, the truth 
and value of which are recognized, are founded upon 
the principles of the ancient philosophers. 

We are now arrived at the period in which we 
shall have to trace the development and progress to 
perfection of these branches of philosophy. The seat 
of science is now transferred from the different pro- 
vincial schools to the metropolis of Greek national 
literature and refinement, Athens. When Athens 
became the political capital of Greece she necessarily 
became the home and centre of science and literature. 
The causes which led to her political supremacy led 
also to her literary and philosophical preeminence. 
The independent spirit which made Greece forget her 
differences of race, and combine as one nation against 
Persia, was totally inconsistent with long subjection 
to oligarchal principles. Sparta could not long main- 
tain her ascendancy. Although the Med ism of 
Pausanias was the immediate and overt cause which 
led to her fall from power, it cannot be supposed that 
she could have long remained at the head of the 
Greek confederacy. Her reserved temper shrunk 
from intercourse with other people. Her institutions 
were modeled with a view to stability rather than 
progress. It was therefore evidently the destiny of 
Athens to exercise an extensive influence over Greece. 
She always put herself forward as the champion of 
Greek liberty, and as the leader of the democratic 
a Thucyd. i. 



172 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

states, she was herself the representative of freedom. 
The tendency of the Greek mind was towards pro- 
gress. Those states which did not manifest this 
tendency formed the exceptions to the rule ; and 
hence, when the national existence of Greece com- 
mences, Athens naturally becomes the centre of 
national activity, the leader of all that distinguishes 
Greece as a nation. Even when the disastrous result 
of the Peloponnesian war hurled Athens from her 
proud position, she was as great in her adversity as 
she had been in her prosperity. 

Before the Persian war broke out, she had esta- 
blished her literary supremacy. The literature of 
passion and imagination, and the language which is 
its natural vehicle, that of music and poetry, had been 
brought to the highest perfection in the Greek drama; 
and it soon appeared to be a recognized law, that 
the dialect spoken at Athens should be the language 
in which prose composition should be universally 
expressed. 

The first prose literature which issued from Athens, 
was historical. This is what might be expected. 
Historical literature is the result of individual effort 
and industry ; philosophical research has always flou- 
rished in what has been termed a school, — that is, 
men associated together for the purposes of mutual 
aid in the work, either in investigation or education. 
The first of these objects is essential to a school, 
the second accidental, but experience has shown that 
the natural tendency of sehools is, to lose sight of 



THE UNIVERSITY OF GREECE. 173 

their primary object in that which is secondary, and 
to degenerate into mere places of education instead of 
study. Athens, during the Peloponnesian war, itself 
almost in a state of blockade, its territory and neigh- 
bourhood periodically ravaged by the Peloponnesian 
army, could not become a university of this kind, 
or invite, to its protection and nurture, learned men 
seeking a place of refuge, where they could in com- 
mon pursue their quiet studies. An individual mind 
of more than common activity, and of a thoughtful 
and philosophical caste, like that of Thucydides, would 
naturally be tempted to give a record of the stirring 
events around him, make them the groundwork of 
his philosophical reflexions, and point to the lessons 
of political wisdom to be derived from them. He 
would teach philosophical statesmanship through the 
medium of history. 

But when the war was over, the ancient literary 
supremacy of Athens seemed to revive, and arise out 
of the ruins of her political power. All Greece recog- 
nised her claim to mental preeminence as beyond 
the reach of the changes and chances of human 
fortune ; and she quickly became the university of 
Greece, the nursing mother of philosophy. 

But, previous to entering upon this brilliant period, 
during which — whilst philosophy was essentially na- 
tional, and the development, not of a part, but of the 
whole of the Greek mind — its home was Athens, and 
its language Athenian ; let us in a few words review 
the progress which human thought had already made. 



174 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

In Ionia the dynamical theory of physics or phy- 
siology, as founded by Thales, developed by Anaxi- 
menes and Diogenes, and finally consummated by 
Heraclitus, had taught that the universe was an eternal 
living being, possessing in itself a principle of vitality, 
which, by spontaneous development, produced all 
phenomena, whether physical or moral. 

The mechanical philosophers denied the existence 
of any internal power of change, but taught that 
the eternal immutable elements were acted upon 
by some natural moving forces, either external or 
internal, and thus by new combinations were pro- 
duced new phenomena. 

The Dorian idea, as developed by the Pythagoreans, 
was, that all phenomena must be referred to moral 
fitness and design, as to a final cause ; and they at- 
tempted to explain all physical and metaphysical 
phenomena by mathematical analogies, and the nume- 
rical principles of harmony. 

The Eleatic school devoted its energies to examining 
the philosophical views of its predecessors, and bringing 
them to the test of logical principles, and hence its 
dogmas are of a negative character. They showed, 
for example, that the self-developing power of many 
parts was not consistent with the existence of one First 
Cause. They therefore deduced the doctrine of one 
God, the all-ruling, omnipresent, eternal ; but whilst 
they denied him the attributes of humanity, they 
denied him personality likewise, and their notion of 
Deity became pure pantheism. 



THE SOPHISTICAL PHILOSOPHY. 175 

Whilst the doctrines of the Ionian and Dorian 
schools were thus proved to be false, the Eleatic 
doctrines were confessedly one-sided and inadequate. 
This shook men's belief in truth itself, and gave rise 
to the sophistical philosophy. 



THE SOPHISTS. 

Although it may be said that the sophists have left 
no fragments, which entitle them to a place in a 
history of literature ; nevertheless, the discussion of 
their tenets, and a refutation of their errors, occupies 
so important a part in the literature of their own, and 
the succeeding period, that such a history w T ould be 
incomplete without some account of the rise and pro- 
gress of their system. 

Moreover, Greek literature is under great obliga- 
tions to the sophists for the improvements which 
they effected in Attic prose. Their skilfulness in the 
use of words increased the copiousness and richness of 
the language, and their logical precision, exercising 
an influence on its structure, improved it in elegance 
and perspicuity. 

Whatever objections, too, may with truth be urged 
against their philosophical system, this praise must be 
at least accorded them, that they first directed man to 
the study of himself. The great value which Socrates 
afterwards attributed to the consciousness of identity, 
was first perceived and taught by the sophists. The 
human mind, and the principles on which its opera- 



176 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tions were carried on, had not previously been studied. 
The reflex action of the mind upon itself had been 
neglected, in the interest felt in investigating the phe- 
nomena of external nature. The failure of all former 
systems, the recklessness of any connexion between 
cause and effect with which favourite theories had been 
pursued and developed, taught thoughtful men that the 
true beginning of philosophical study was a more ac- 
curate investigation of the principles of reasoning. 

Before discussing their history, it will be necessary 
to review the circumstances of the times in which 
they flourished. 

In the middle of the fifth century before the 
Christian era, literature was at its zenith, and 
Athenian taste in the arts and the sense of the 
beautiful had attained their highest perfection. Still 
there was much of sensuality mingled with this 
mental culture. Virtue itself was rather a matter 
of taste than of sentiment, and even the admiration 
of the beautiful tempted the warm temperament and 
lively imagination of the Greek to seek for pleasure 
in sensual gratification. Athens is an example how 
far aesthetic perfection may exist side by side with 
moral pollution. 

Tragedy had applied all its energies, in its character- 
of a popular ethical instructor, to arrest the increasing 
tendency to moral degradation, and nobly had it per- 
formed its task, not only by the moral tendency of the 
plots chosen by the great tragedians, but by the moral 
sentiments which they never lost an opportunity of 



STATE OF ATHENIAN EDUCATION. 177 

enforcing at a time when the heart as well as the ear 
were especially open, and when their lessons were 
supported by all the charms of taste and beauty which 
could engage the attention. 

But, notwithstanding the zeal with which the tragic 
poets laboured to accomplish their mission, the testi- 
mony of the historian and the comic poet proves that 
the tone of public morality was low and depraved. 

This moral contamination appears not to have been 
confined to Athens, but to have overspread the whole 
of Greece; the strife of faction and revolutionary 
hatred between classes and parties, which did not 
desolate Athens until the termination of the century 
was, year after year, deluging all the little states of 
Greece in blood. Although the historian does not 
enter at length into detail, we cannot doubt but that 
the state of things was as fearful in Epidamnus and 
Platsea as he describes it to have been in the ill-fated 
island of Corcyra. 

Assuming, then, that such was the moral condition, 
not only of Athens but of all Greece, it is easy to 
imagine what views would be popularly entertained 
on the subject of education. The old Athenian system 
so much praised by Aristophanes, which had taught 
Athenians of the olden time their duties as soldiers and 
citizens, would rapidly become unpopular, and be voted 
out of date and unsuited to the times, as not calculated 
to fit the young Athenian for public life, or for gain- 
ing an influence in an ecclesia, such as Thucydides 
and Aristophanes describe. The public voice would 

VOL. II. N 



178 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

be for substituting a system of education in which 
moral principle would be neglected for the sake of 
showy accomplishments. 

The sophists threw themselves at once into this 
false educational system ; and, by the influence of 
their abilities, took the lead in it, and became the 
public instructors of the higher classes at Athens. 
It must not be supposed that they were all, without 
exception, nothing more than shallow pretenders to 
learning. The education which they gave was super- 
ficial, because no more was asked of them, but it does 
not follow that they knew no more than they were 
required to teach. All of them were educated and 
accomplished men, and expert dialecticians. Many 
of them had a fair acquaintance with various branches 
of learning and philosophy. Hippias, of Elis, not- 
withstanding all his vanity and pretension, possessed 
varied accomplishments and versatility of genius. 
Democritus was a most ingenious thinker, and most 
learned in the philosophy of preceding ages. Pro- 
tagoras had an extensive knowledge of politics and 
history. Gorgias was an enthusiastic student of 
natural philosophy, although his dialectic subtlety led 
him into the grossest absurdities. 

It cannot be doubted that the sophists were, gene- 
rally speaking, men of ability, but the important point 
for inquiry is what influence they voluntarily exercised 
on society. To accuse them of having demoralized 
Athens is unjust/but how far they are responsible for 
the existing demoralization admits of question. The 



CONDUCT OF THE SOPHISTS AS EDUCATORS. 179 

place which they occupied in the Greek social system, 
and especially in the Athenian, was that of educators 
and instructors. How, then, did they fulfil this im- 
portant function ? In the first place, it is plain that 
they did not, like the philosophers, consider the com- 
munication of knowledge to others a duty ; profit, 
and that of an exorbitant kind, was their avowed 
motive. Protagoras demanded no less a sum than 
one hundred minae (four hundred pounds) to complete 
the education of a finished Athenian gentleman. 
Hence they came in contact only with the wealthier 
classes, and the education which they professed to 
give was such as they required, and such as would 
fit them for the distinctions to which they aspired. 
It is easy to see, therefore, that although not charge- 
able with an intention to corrupt youth, their system 
would be one of false display — superficial rather than 
philosophical — in mere accordance with the spirit of 
the age, and not in advance of it. They swam with 
the tide of popular error, instead of attempting to 
stem it at the risk of losing their popularity. The 
young wealthy Athenian would wish for an education 
rather showy than substantial, for learning rather 
varied and extensive than deep. What he would 
above all things require would be dialectic skill and 
rhetorical power : the one would make him shine in 
private life as a man of brilliant conversational power ; 
the other would distinguish him as a public man, 
and enable him to gain the influence which he coveted 
in the popular assembly. To give this education, and 

n2 



180 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

no more, was the business of the sophists. A priori, 
it might be expected that in order to impart dialectical 
skill, they might be tempted to forget that truth is 
the real object of dialectic, and its abuse victory and 
display; to argue for the latter rather than the 
former, and thus encourage sceptical indifferentism : 
and as for the fact, there is abundant evidence a to 
prove the existence of a system of instruction, the ob- 
ject of which was to make the worse appear the better 
reason. Although Aristophanes put forward Socrates 
as the object of his attack, because he was a prominent 
and well-known character, it cannot be supposed that 
he was fighting an unreal shadow, or that the contest 
between the two Xoyot, or the ancient and modern 
systems of education, had no prototypes in Athenian 
life. Had the comic poet attempted such a thing, the 
audience would have hissed and pelted him. b The 
whole essence of Athenian comedy was either a just 
attack on real abuses, or an unjust libel on real 
characters ; anything unreal would not have been 
endured for a moment by an Athenian audience, 
until the more quiet times of the middle comedy, 
when the national spirit had been almost crushed by 
successive misfortunes. Besides this there are passages 
in the works of Plato and Aristotle, not only which 
directly combat these views, but also which indirectly 
show the existence of a prevalent tendency to captious 
and sophistical objections, against which it was neces- 

a Arist. Rhet. ii. 24 ; Plato, Apol. Soc .; Aristoph. Nub. 
i> Athen. vi. 245 ; xiii. 583. 







THEY ENCOURAGED A VICIOUS SYSTEM. 181 

sary that a philosopher should be constantly upon his 
guard. 

If, then, the system of education which we call 
sophistical, existed, to whom must its existence be 
attributed ? Not to the philosophers, for of them we 
can ourselves be the judges. They were not only its 
most conscientious opponents, but were eminent for 
their devotedness to the cause of truth, of justice, 
and of virtue. The only other instructors, then, were 
the sophists. Surely, then, it is not too much to 
say that their motives were selfish, and that, instead 
of denouncing a vicious system, they gave a negative 
encouragement to it, by a species of education which 
answered their own ends, and hastened the advance 
of moral and political corruption. To represent the 
sophists as wilful and designing impostors, whose 
object was to corrupt the public morality, is going 
too far. It is enough to say that they professed 
to qualify the youth of the leading families to 
shine and become influential in a degenerate state 
of society, to cultivate those talents and adorn them 
with those accomplishments which were all that 
Athenian society, now fast becoming morally corrupt, 
looked for or valued. They did not consider it their 
business, as instructors of youth, to teach them to 
aspire to higher and nobler views, to set before their 
eyes a purer and more perfect standard, to reform 
the morals of society. A low moral standard was set 
up and admitted, and they did not care to elevate 
a See Nic. Eth. ii. 6. 



182 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

it. Hence, although the language used respecting 
them would have been severe from men of the world, 
it was not so in the mouths of men whose views were 
as upright and uncompromising as were those of Plato 
and Aristotle. 

But whatever may be the truth with respect to 
their dishonesty, there is every reason to believe that, 
whilst they pretended to much knowledge, they were 
on many points incompetent and unsound. The vast 
range of subjects which Hippias a professed to teach, 
of itself argues ostentatious pretension or superficial 
knowledge. The oratory of Gorgias is universally 
confessed to have been mere florid bombast and well- 
balanced antitheses. Theodorus and Thrasymachus 
wrote treatises on rhetoric, noticed by Quinctilian. b 
but narrow-minded, and deficient in enlarged and 
philosophical views of the subject ; and the latter 
taught that the only standard of justice is the will 
of the governing power, and represented the just 
men as weak and contemptible, and the unjust as 
commanding respect. His teaching embodied, as a 
motive to action, the principle, " so long as thou 
doest well unto thyself men will speak well of thee." 

Of the philosophers, their adversaries, voluminous 
works have been preserved as precious treasures, and 
handed down from generation to generation; much 
that they contain deserves to be recorded in letters 
of gold. Had the teaching of the sophists approached 

a See Plato, Prot. ; and Hipp. Maj. and Min. 
b Inst. Orat. iii. 3. c See Plato, Rep. 



EXTANT ESSAY OF GORGIAS. 183 

near to that of their opponents in value, their writings 
would have met with the same immortality. But 
this has not been the case. Of their teaching little has 
come down to us, it is all comprised in a few worth- 
less fragments, neither suggestive of a train of thought 
nor conveying direct instruction. 

The only exception to this, is a short essay of 
Gorgias, which, if it be an average specimen of so- 
phistical teaching, proves all that can be wished 
respecting their fallacious reasoning and their corrupt 
scepticism. It is not deficient in ingenuity or spe- 
ciousness ; the doctrine deduced in it from the Eleatic 
philosophy, though based on fallacy, is plausible, but 
common sense at once refutes his view. Its sum and 
substance is, that nothing exists ; if anything exists, 
it cannot be known; if anything can be known, it 
cannot be communicated to others. 

Without imputing to them the crime of wilfully 
corrupting public morals, the view held by Plato a 
seems to be the true one ; namely, that if the tone 
of society is vicious, the teachers of such a society 
must be vicious also, otherwise their teaching would 
be rejected or neutralized by pernicious social in- 
fluences. 

a Rep. vi. 6, p. 492. 



184 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

OCRATES. THE PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. HIS 

BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY LIFE. HIS D.EMON. — ALCIBIADES, 

XENOPHON, AND THE YOUNGER PERICLES HIS PUPILS CAUSES OF 

HIS UNPOPULARITY AND PERSECUTION. HIS PUBLIC CONDUCT ON 

THREE REMARKABLE OCCASIONS. — HIS APOLOGY AND CONDEMNATION. 

HIS DEATH. HIS MODE AND OCCASIONS OF TEACHING. WHY HIS 

TEACHING WAS SO OFTEN POLITICAL. — THE SOCRATES OF PLATO 

SEEMS TO DIFFER FROM THAT OF XENOPHON. THEY GIVE HIS 

TEACHING FROM OPPOSITE POINTS OF VIEW. WHY HE VALUED 

MORAL ABOVE PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE. DIFFICULTY 

OF ELICITING THE DOCTRINES OF SOCRATES FROM THE WRITINGS OF 
XENOPHON AND PLATO. HIS FIRST GREAT DOCTRINE THE EXIST- 
ENCE OF TRUTH. HIS SECOND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. HIS DOC- 
TRINES ARRANGED UNDER THREE HEADS, 1. HIS IDEA OF GOD, 

II. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, III. HIS MORAL THEORY. THE 

CONTRADICTORY PART OF HIS TEACHING. 

Socrates, born b.c. 468. 

To arrest the progress of this popular demoraliza- 
tion and corrupt mode of thinking, speaking, and act- 
ing, there was providentially raised up a teacher of 
righteousness in the person of Socrates. He was a 
philosopher in the highest sense of the term, for he 
loved that true wisdom which consists in virtue, and 
what is more important, he was the first who caused 
the truths of philosophy to exercise a practical in- 



SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY PRACTICAL. 185 

fluence upon the masses of mankind. His instruction 
was based upon a knowledge of the human heart, and 
upon the dictates of a pure moral sense ; self-know- 
ledge and moral consciousness were to him the great 
end of study. He felt that he had a moral, rather than 
a philosophical mission ; however important physical 
science might be, he considered the study of human 
character, and the improvement of the human heart, 
an all-absorbing duty; in this sense he drew down 
philosophy from heaven to earth, a and his life set 
forth and illustrated his doctrine. 

He was not the founder of any school, although 
all the subsequent celebrated schools of Greece were 
developments of his principles. He did not profess 
to have any regular philosophical system; his object 
was to lead men to a consciousness of error as it 
arose, and consequently to a confession of it ; but 
his mind was of that true philosophical caste which, 
in proportion to its higher attainments in virtue, feels 
its distance from the standard of perfection, and the 
farther it advances in knowledge is the more con- 
scious of human ignorance. This consciousness was 
to him the commencement of all wisdom, the first 
step in obedience to the divine admonition, TvaiOi 
ceavrov (foww thyself), which he received from the 
Delphian deity ; self-ignorance he considered as nearly 
akin to madness . b 

In the streets and high-ways of the city, in the 
midst of those crowds who thronged Athens at that 
a Tusc. Dis. v. 4, 10. b Xen. Memor. Hi. 9. 



186 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

crowded time, when the policy of Pericles had assembled 
all Attica within the walls, his lessons were delivered 
as occasion called them forth, and were listened to 
with enthusiastic attention. 

He was born 01. lxxvii. 4, and was the son of 
Sophroniscus, a sculptor. Some say that in his youth 
he followed his father's profession, and a group of 
the Graces, which proved him to be no mean artist, 
was shown in the Acropolis as his work. He is said 
to have naturally had strong passions and an im- 
petuous temper, but to have conquered them by a 
powerful will and firm moral principles. 

The commencement of his philosophical career is 
thus related by Diogenes. 3 A wealthy Athenian, 
passing his father's workshop, observed the youthful 
Socrates practising his art. He had previously seen 
him attending the lectures of Anaxagoras and Arche- 
laus ; and, struck with his zeal, he generously supplied 
the means for enabling him to pursue his philoso- 
phical studies without labouring at his profession of 
an artist. Diligent as he was in those studies which 
were pursued in the schools of Athens, he never- 
theless, to use the words of Pericles, 5 " pursued phi- 
losophy without effeminacy." Study did not distract 
his attention from his public duties as a soldier and 
a citizen. For the hardships of a military life, his 
hardy and robust constitution, which survived the 
terrible pestilence to which so many fell victims, 
eminently fitted him, He braved the rigours of a 
* ii. 18. b Thucyd. ii. 



THE DAEMON OF SOCRATES. 187 

northern winter in the campaign of Fotidsea, which 
was one of the overt causes of the Peloponnesian 
war (b.c. 432), and afterwards served at Delium and 
Amphipolis (b.c. 424). In the disastrous flight from 
the field of Delium, he saved and bore off in his 
arms his beloved pupil, Xenophon. But he was deeply 
impressed with the belief that his vocation was to 
reform Athenian morals and to remodel society. So 
strong was his conviction, that he believed in the 
ever present direction of a heavenly monitor. 3 He 
thought that a divine voice first urged him to cul- 
tivate that portion of the Muse's art which included 
the study of philosophy, and inspired him on each 
occasion with the words to which he gave utterance. 
His earnestness and self-devotion to his work sprang 
from his belief in a divine commission. 

What Socrates meant, when he professed to act 
under the guidance of a daemon, or genius, has been 
the subject of much discussion. Probably impressed 
with the idea of being called to the fulfilment of a 
work almost apostolic, he not only felt the need of 
divine direction, but even experienced this support. 
It is most probable that one so habituated to self- 
communion as Socrates, would be conscious of the 
providential superintendence of the Supreme Being. 

In his attempt to regenerate society he felt, as all 

moralists must feel, that his best prospects of success 

were with the young, and with those especially whose 

talents, cultivated by learning, were likely to influence 

a Plato, Pined, i. 



188 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

their contemporaries. For this reason the clever, rich, 
and popular, but profligate Alcibiades, was one of 
his earliest pupils, but his volatile and ostentatious 
disposition was proof against the wisdom of the philo. 
sopher. 

With his future biographer, Xenophon, he was 
successful, as far as the man himself was concerned, 
for in Xenophon we see a perfect reflexion of the 
practical side of his great master's character, as his 
imaginative qualities are represented in his other 
distinguished pupil, Plato ; but, political prejudice 
caused the loss of these benefits to his country ; a 
jealousy of his anti-democratical principles exiled Xe- 
nophon from his native land. 

The worth and talents of Pericles inspired him with 
hopes of giving to Athens a worthy successor in the 
person of his gallant son ; but, although in every way 
he was full of promise, the philosopher's hopes were 
disappointed by his condemnation to death amongst 
the victors at Arginusse. 

The secret voice which he implicitly obeyed had 
warned him to abstain from public affairs, and to 
devote himself to the work of the Muses, a that is, to 
literature, science, and philosophy. Hence in busy 
Athens, where to take an interest in politics was 
considered a citizen's duty, his neutrality brought 
upon him the hatred of all political partizans. His 
earnestness as a social reformer unjustly involved him 
in that odium with which the sophists were justly 

a Plato, Phaed. i. 



SOCRATES ATTACKED IN THE " CLOUDS." 189 

regarded. The comic poet, in his play of the "Clouds," 
exhibited B.C. 423, held him up to public obloquy and 
ridicule as the leader of the new lights and author 
of the new and unsound philosophy. His peculiar 
physiognomy, flat nose, prominent eyes, and corpu- 
lent figure ; his coarse attire, ill calculated to win 
the respect of the polished Athenians ; his humorous 
mockery, unsparing scorn and bitter irony; his public 
manner of teaching; the resistless eloquence and lo- 
gical power which, notwithstanding all these personal 
disadvantages, arrested and riveted the attention of 
every one who heard him, had rendered him a well- 
known and marked man, and therefore a fit subject 
for dramatic representation. 

We may acquit Aristophanes of any malicious 
design, or of any further wish than to fix upon the 
most prominent philosophical reformer as the repre- 
sentative of a new and unpopular system, knowing 
that the mass of the people would be little able to 
distinguish him from the sophistical pretenders. Pro- 
bably he would have been horror-struck at the idea 
that his sportive mockery had caused the condemna- 
tion and death of an innocent and holy man. 

The persecution of Socrates was not religious but 
political. Impiety is a sweeping charge, easily made, 
and neither admitting nor requiring that definite and 
exact proof which is expected in other cases. Great 
men in all ages have fallen by charges preferred under 
the pretence of religion. It might be supposed that 
his non-interference in politics would have defended 



190 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

him against this danger, but it must be remembered 
that neutrality deprives a man of the protection of 
friends and partizans, and the bias of Socrates towards 
aristocratic principles could not but have been a 
matter of notoriety. His love for the younger Peri- 
cles, who fell amongst the unpopular generals at 
Arginusse; his intimacy with Alcibiades and Critias, 
who had taken so leading a part in the overthrow of 
the constitution, rendered him suspected of being 
opposed to democracy. His judges belonged to that 
party who, having been exiled by the Thirty Tyrants, 
had subsequently caused their expulsion. All new 
views, therefore, either of politics or education, natu- 
rally suggested to them obstacles to their policy, which 
was a return to the old state of things, as embodied 
in the constitution of Solon. Socrates, therefore, fell 
a victim to the spirit of party. 

On three occasions he departed from his rule of 
non-interference with the affairs of public life, and on 
all of them the firmness and nobleness of his character 
were eminently displayed. When the ten generals 
who had gained the victory at Arginusse were brought 
to their unjust trial, Socrates was one of the prytanes, 
or presidents of the council, and although the people, 
excited almost to fury by the demagogues, were deter- 
mined on their condemnation, and clamoured for their 
blood, Socrates fearlessly withstood their rage, and 
refused to enroll their infamous decree. 3 Doubtless 
his feelings were of a mixed nature. He could not 
a Xen." Hellen. i. 



POLITICAL CONDUCT OF SOCRATES. 191 

contemplate with patience the destruction of his dis- 
tinguished disciple, the younger Pericles ; but this 
was not his only motive. His endeavours to save 
them proceeded quite as much from a stern, uncom- 
promising love of justice, and from a wish to save his 
countrymen from the disgrace of so unjust a verdict. 

Again, when Theramenes took sanctuary at the altar 
of Vesta in the council-hall, we find Socrates again 
interposing between the popular fury and its intended 
victim. And, lastly, when, in order to involve him in 
their guilt, the Thirty chose him with some others to 
seize Leon of Salamis, an innocent man, and lead 
him to death, he fearlessly refused to obey their 
commands. 51 

For twenty-five years or more he undauntedly 
pursued his blameless course unmolested, but, as in 
the case of most social reformers, prejudice and unpo- 
pularity at length prevailed. In the year B.C. 399, 
when his age was threescore years and ten, Melitus, 
Anytus, and Lycon brought against him, under the 
law of Diopithes, an accusation consisting of the fol- 
lowing counts. "Socrates is guilty, (1.) of not be- 
lieving in the national deities; (2.) of corrupting the 
youth." In addition to the motives of a public nature 
already alluded to, which led to his accusation, it is 
said, on the authority of Xenophon, that Anytus was 
instigated by private animosity. 1 " Anytus was not 
only a liberal in politics, but a rich leather-seller, who 
wished to bring up his son to his own trade. But 

a Plato, Apol. * Xen. Apol. 29 ; quoted by Grote. 



192 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Socrates, seeing that he was fit for better things, tried 
to persuade him to study philosophy. Other cases 
similar to this may have furnished grounds for the 
charge that he corrupted those whom he professed to 
educate. His enmity to all moral and political abuse 
was also probably enhanced by the bitter and satirical 
vein of irony which ran through his teaching. Men 
will frequently bear violence, but not ridicule ; and 
Socrates did not hesitate to ridicule, as well as to 
attack the national institutions. 51 Again, the Greeks 
regarded the works of their old poets with a reve- 
rence due almost to sacred writings. That part, 
therefore, of the accusation which charged him with 
corrupting the youth by perverting and misapplying 
the sentiments of their beloved and venerated poets, 
was likely to carry along with it the public feeling 
and sympathy. 

But, notwithstanding all the circumstances which 
were in favour of the accusers, he was found guilty 
by but a small majority. 15 In a body of dicasts as 
large as a full attendance in an English house of 
commons, two hundred and eighty-one were for his 
condemnation, and two hundred and seventy-six for 
his acquittal. To epitomise his defence in a work like 
this would be ■ unsatisfactory. It is a perfect whole, 
neither more nor less than what it ought to have 
been. He sought not to move the pity of his judges, 
he cared not for acquittal. He was proudly con- 
scious of his innocence ; he did not conceal his feeling 
a Xen. Memor. i. 2. b Plato, Apol. 25. 



DEFENCE OF SOCRATES. 193 

that he had faithfully discharged his duties, although 
there is no vain ostentation in the way in which he 
appeals to this fact. He forms a correct estimate 
of his own worth, and thus realizes Aristotle's a con- 
ception of the magnanimous character, and exhibits 
that union of humility and high-mindedness which is 
observable in none, perhaps, with the exception of St. 
Paul. There is good reason for believing that had 
he not disdained all unworthy self-abasement, had he 
canvassed the compassion of his judges, instead of 
honestly telling them unpalatable truths, he would 
either have been acquitted, or, at least, not have been 
capitally condemned. 

The beautiful peroration of his apology has been the 
admiration of all ages; Cicero translated it from 
Plato, Steel translated it from Cicero. b The last 
words of it are sublime for their simplicity, and their 
spirit of pious resignation : " It is time to depart, I to 
die, you to live ; whose lot is the better is known to 
God alone." 

When found guilty, he did not take the means 
which the Athenian law allowed, to arrest judgment. 
His accusers had made the charge capital ; Socrates 
might have proposed the infliction of a pecuniary 
fine; and had it been a severe one, it might have 
been sufficient to turn the scale in his favour ; but 
he felt that he deserved reward instead of punish- 
ment, and was too honest to conceal this feeling. 
He therefore proposed a fine of thirty minse, which his 

E Arist. Eth. b Cic. Tusc. i. ; Spect. 146. 

VOL. II. O 



194 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

friends promised to pay for him ; but which was too 
small to render it probable that it would be ac- 
cepted. It so chanced that the sacred trireme had 
sailed for Delos on the day of his condemnation, and 
as no one could be put to death until its return, 
Socrates remained for thirty days in prison, and 
in chains. All offers of means to escape he refused, 
for, consistent to the last, he would not violate the 
law. 

To this interval we are indebted for that conversa- 
tion on the immortality of the soul, which Plato has 
embodied in his " Phsedo," and although Plato was not 
himself present, it is so Socratic, that there can be 
little doubt that it was faithfully reported by those 
who were with him at his last moments. 

His last words show that, so far was he from being 
guilty of that which the Athenians would have called 
impiety, that he even complied with superstitions 
which he himself disbelieved. " Crito," he said, just 
before he drank the hemlock, " we owe a cock to 
iEsculapius, do not neglect to pay it." He felt that 
death was the last and best remedy for all the ills and 
ailments of life. 

Such were the life and death of this great man, 
who has commanded more admiration and reverence 
than any individual of ancient or modern times, and 
whose death has been felt as the greatest of all 
human examples, not only by his own countrymen, 
but by the whole civilized world. 

The Fathers of the Christian Church vie with 



SOCRATIC TEACHING. 195 

heathen moralists, in deservedly extolling the wisdom 
and self-denying virtue of Socrates ; nor can any one 
read his story, the chief details of which are familiar 
to us even from childhood, without the deepest ve- 
neration for one who testified to the sincerity of his 
doctrines by his life, and died a martyr not only to 
truth, but also to the principle of obedience to the 
law. 

His death was the signal for the voluntary exile 
and dispersion of his friends. It is said that the 
Athenians repented of their intolerance, but this is 
scarcely to be believed of so light-minded and unfeel- 
ing a people. The deed they had done probably made 
no remorseful impression on their consciences, and was 
speedily banished from their recollections. 

In examining the doctrines of the Socratic philo- 
sophy, we must not expect to find the regular system 
which characterizes a school. Socrates, it has already 
been stated, was neither a member of a school, nor 
did he profess to be the founder of one. His force 
of character exercised a greater influence over his 
hearers, and over posterity, than that of any mere 
human moral teacher; but he did not aspire to the 
title of master, or the right to unqualified submission 
to his dicta on the part of his disciples. His cha- 
racter was that of a moral and political reformer, 
and a religious missionary. Under all circumstances, 
in all places, wherever he saw occasion he was at 
hand to inculcate noble sentiments of virtue and 
obedience to law. Although, therefore, owing to the 

o 2 



196 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

consistency of his views and principles, and the philo- 
sophical character of his mind, his doctrines may be 
reduced to a system, they were not delivered nor 
taught by himself in a systematic form. The poli- 
tical circumstances of the times in which he lived, 
did not admit of such a mode of teaching*. He could 
not assemble round him in public a crowd of admirers, 
listening, day after day, to lessons systematically 
following one another in an orderly series. With 
the exception of a few intimates and friends who 
constantly enjoyed his society, those whom he in- 
structed and questioned, and with whom he disputed 
on one day, were totally different from those who 
conversed with him on the next. 

The exigencies of the times required that the seeds 
of moral \irtue should be sown broad-cast. His duty 
was, if we may use the words of Holy Writ, " to cast 
his bread upon the waters," and no one ever felt 
more deeply what his duty was than Socrates. The 
times furnished many valuable opportunities for iso- 
lated lessons, for the original outpourings of a full 
heart, deeply impressed with the necessity there was 
for his ministrations, but they were not suitable for 
establishing a school of philosophy. Socrates lived 
and taught during that disastrous social period, the 
Peloponnesian war. The disorganized state of society 
demanded an immediate and severe remedy. The 
sophists, who were, as we have seen, the recognized 
teachers of the Athenian youth, were not qualified 
for leaders in such critical times, because they were 



HIS TEACHING POLITICAL. 197 

only on a par with, and not in advance of, their age. 
Their object was to lead men in the path of virtue 
only so far as was consistent with popularity. As 
their end was profit, they had no idea of self-sacrifice 
or voluntary submission to personal inconvenience. 
Hence their teaching was infected with the prevalent 
low tone of public morals ; and in order to rid them- 
selves of intellectual difficulties and moral anxieties, 
they took refuge in a cold and indifferent scepticism 
as to all truth. 

Socrates, although, from there being no other moral 
teachers at that time, he must be considered as be- 
longing to the class which bore the name of Sophists, 
(for it must be remembered that the sophists were not 
a sect but a profession), was unlike the rest of that 
profession. His pure mind saw from what a mass of 
moral impurity his countrymen required to be cleansed; 
that nothing would be sufficient short of a complete 
moral regeneration ; and he felt that he must apply 
all his energies to making them good men, and, as 
a means to this, good citizens. 

It is on this account that his moral doctrines so 
often take a political colouring : he did not think that 
there were no higher moral sanctions and obligations 
than those imposed by human laws ; but as a practical 
and popular teacher, he saw that, in many instances, 
no teaching could be more effectual than to exalt the 
majesty and supremacy of law, and the political duty 
of obedience and subordination. 

It is plain that to say that this was universally the 



198 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

character of his teaching would be giving only a one- 
sided view of the mind of Socrates. If his character 
is contemplated from the opposite points of view 
taken by his two most distinguished disciples, the 
Socrates of Plato seems totally different from that of 
Xenophon ; but this apparent dissimilarity is easily 
explained by considering the different hands by whom 
his portraiture is drawn. Plato was a philosopher, 
endued with a poetic imagination, and a mind which 
delighted in the contemplation of abstract truth, who 
thought the highest happiness and the highest virtue 
consisted in such employment ; who could scarcely 
descend to the sober practical business of life, or the 
application of moral science to men's political and 
social relation, simply because his system denied the 
reality of all visible phenomena. Hence, as might be 
expected, we see in the writings of Plato the theoretic 
side of Socrates. Xenophon had a philosophical, but, 
at the same time, a practical mind. An intellect as 
clear as his beautiful style is lucid. He was a matter- 
of-fact soldier, who wisely took a common sense view 
of all that related to human happiness. Hence the 
aspect from which he contemplated the Socratic cha- 
racter was that which was in accordance with the 
structure of his own mind. The dicta, which he con- 
sidered the memorabilia, or things worthy to be remem- 
bered, of his great master and beloved friend, laid hold 
at once of his memory and his affections. They were 
such as had a practical bearing upon the concerns of 
human life. 



THE SOCRATES OF PLATO AND XENOPHON. 199 

Plato caught at and apprehended the lofty aspira- 
tions of the free spirit, liberated as it were from the 
fetters which bound her to her temporary tabernacle 
of the flesh, her earthly prison-house. He beheld him 
in communion with the invisible world, holding con- 
verse with the Deity by prayer, by oracle, by the 
mysterious voice of his invisible monitor, which ever 
directed him in the course of his life, and pointed 
out the line which he was to pursue. He followed 
him with all his poetic enthusiasm into the world 
beyond the grave, the region pervaded by the pleroma 
of the divine nature. Xenophon delighted to see his 
spirit, which lie, no less than Plato, recognized and 
admired as divine, humbling itself to the things of 
earth, applying itself to unravel the difficulties of 
the moral constitution of man, and drawing prac- 
tical lessons from them, calculated to guide men in 
the path of virtue and happiness. Plato, as a general 
rule, is the exponent of his free and unrestrained 
conversation with his own friends, associates, and 
disciples, who were morally nearly on a level with 
him, and whose minds could soar with him to the 
regions of the invisible : Xenophon is the recorder 
of his every-day lessons, which produced such an 
effect upon the awe-struck crowd, that, thoughtless 
and wicked as they were, hating him so bitterly as 
at times to insult and even strike him, they stood as 
though enchanted, and in the presence of a superior 
power. 

It is, therefore, from a combination of the two views 



200 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

which are derived from these two authorities that a 
true conception of Socrates must be formed. 

The observations which have been already made 
will explain the accusation made against Socrates, of 
undervaluing and despising physical and mathematical 
science. Doubtless he does at times speak of them in 
disparaging terms, but it is only in comparison with 
the importance of moral science and the study of 
human nature. 

The exigencies of the times in which he lived made 
the investigation of moral science of paramount im- 
portance. He had a deep and awful impression that 
every moment of his valuable existence was lost and 
wasted which was not devoted to the investigation of 
moral and social questions, and to the advancement 
of moral and social reforms. Hence his axiom, which 
he reverenced as a supernatural revelation, that self- 
knowledge is the first and the indispensable step to 
all other science. There was then, on his part, no 
contempt of mathematical or natural science, but a 
deep and religious feeling of their secondary import- 
ance, as compared with that which alone he thought 
would make men better, and therefore happier. 
Besides, no philosopher had as yet appreciated or 
taught the importance of mathematical and physical 
studies as a part of mental training. The end which 
they had in view was simply the knowledge to be 
acquired. We, in modern times, see in such studies 
another end — the cultivation of the reasoning faculties. 
Had Socrates seen this mental, and therefore moral, 



HIS PREFERENCE OF MORAL SCIENCE. 201 

effect produced by abstract studies, they would have 
occupied, probably, in his teaching, even a more 
prominent place. Coupled with the internal convic- 
tion that he was under supernatural guidance, and was 
constrained to pursue one path of duty, his estimate 
of moral science was something of that kind which 
leads the Christian teacher, without undervaluing 
secular knowledge, to estimate still more highly that 
which makes men wise unto salvation. 

Other difficulties which have been found by phi- 
losophers to lie in the way of eliciting the Socratic 
system from the writings of Xenophon and Plato, are 
the following. First, that Xenophon wrote as his 
defender, and therefore was, to a certain extent, his 
panegyrist; whilst Plato was himself a philosopher, 
an original thinker, whose intellectual powers were 
equal to those of his great master ; and therefore 
it is difficult to discover how many of his opinions 
are his own, and how many are due to Socrates. 
The scattered notices, therefore, which have been found 
in the writings of Aristotle have been made use of 
to correct the erroneous inferences likely to be drawn 
from an examination of the assertions of Xenophon 
and Plato. 

The first great doctrine which Socrates taught was 
the real objective existence of truth and morality. 
In the dawnings of philosophy Nature first arrested 
man's attention, and in the interesting investigations 
which thickly crowded upon him, he neglected to 
turn his thoughts inward upon himself, and to con- 



202 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

template the moral and intellectual nature with which 
he was himself endowed. The wide field of research 
which Nature opened gave room for a vast variety 
of contradictory theories, one as probable and as 
capable of support as the other. It is therefore not 
to be wondered at that a notion gradually arose that 
there is no such thing as truth, or that when atten- 
tion began to be turned from physiology to morals, 
the same false axiom should have obtained there 
also. 

Whatever may be said of the sophists in their 
favour, there is abundant evidence to show that this 
was the tendency of their teaching. Socrates was the 
first to expose the unsoundness of this immoral system. 
Struck with the unsatisfactory results to which the 
students of Nature had universally arrived, he pro- 
mised his disciples that, in the study of their own 
moral and intellectual nature, they would avoid this 
uncertainty. 

Secondly, his intense feeling of religion led him 
to see at once the unreasonableness of that atheistic 
tendency which pervaded the philosophical speculations 
of his age. This unbelief he attributed to the prevail- 
ing scepticism as to everything which was not per- 
ceptible to the external senses. The same evidence 
which he thought conclusive in proving the real exist- 
ence of truth he applied also to prove the existence of 
Deity. As our self-consciousness unanswerably proved 
to us the existence of a divine nature within us, it as 
plainly spoke of the presence of Deity in the universe. 



HIS IDEA OF GOD. 203 

The doctrines of Socrates may be arranged under three 
heads — 

I. His idea of God. 
II. His belief in the immortality of the soul. 

III. His moral theory. 

I. As causes are often known only by their effects, 
and the forces of Nature by the phenomena, so the 
soul — that which we are conscious rules within us — 
is known only by its operations. Therefore, to refuse 
belief in Deity because he does not assume such a 
form and nature as is discernible by the senses is 
folly, but nevertheless his existence is as clearly 
known as if he were visible by marks of design and 
final causes in the universe, but especially by his 
operations in the intellectual nature of man. He 
reasoned upwards, by analogy, from the acknowledged 
existence of a rational ruling principle within us, to 
a similar mind, supreme over the powers of the uni- 
verse, from which the human mind, identical in its 
nature, derived its origin. The subordination of all 
secondary causes to the great First Cause, is illus- 
trated by the mode in which man acts ; hence in this 
point the explanation is derived from the study of 
self. Posture, for example, or corporeal action, is 
referable primarily to muscular activity, but ultimately 
to the intelligent determination of the will. 

To contemplate the attributes of Deity in his rela- 
tion to man, seemed to Socrates of such infinite 
importance to his work of moral reform, that he 
does not seem to have indulged in profitless specu- 



204 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

lations as to the divine essence. Content with the 
belief in the existence of an intelligent, omnipresent, 
omniscient Being, the supreme and intelligent source 
and ruler of all things, he inquired no further.* 
Although there is no doubt that he rejected all ideas 
of Deity in human form, and held that the divine 
(to §s7ov) was one, yet he did not care to disturb the 
popular notions of polytheism, so that their ideas of 
the Divine nature were invested with the attributes of 
an all-wise and all-good Providence. It seems as 
though his reverential feelings were so deep as to think 
that even polytheism was less dangerous than atheism, 
or even than the disbelief in a personal Deity, the 
author of man's happiness, which is inseparable from 
pantheism. So little did he deserve the charge of 
irreligion advanced against him by his accusers. 

II. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul 
followed as a corollary, from the belief that the 
rational part of man's nature was a portion of the 
Supreme Mind which governs the universe. Cer- 
tainty on such a point as this is not to be expected 
antecedent to divine revelation ; nor can we be sur- 
prized at finding the strongest hopes and the deepest 
internal convictions sometimes expressed in wavering 
and uncertain terms. Of the exact condition of the 
soul after death, he could assert nothing, whatever 
his conjectures might be ; but that it would be well 
with the virtuous, and the reverse with the wicked, 
was evidently his firm persuasion ; and, moreover, 
a Xen. Mem. i. 1, &c. 



HIS ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY. 205 

that when freed from the restraints of the body and 
the interference of bodily passions, the soul would be 
able to exert its intellectual energy. The concluding 
scene of his life, so beautifully narrated by Plato, 
will show what his belief was ; and how, in that 
belief, a philosopher could die and enter upon the 
unknown world with pious resignation to the will 
of that Divine Being, to whose service he had faith- 
fully devoted his talents and his faculties. 

The cardinal principle of his ethical philosophy 
harmonized with his view of the relation subsisting 
between the divine and human nature. If the soul of 
man is a portion of the Deity, virtue, and therefore 
happiness, must be sought by endeavouring to mould 
ourselves after the divine image. The practical rule, 
therefore, would be a negative one. As our resem- 
blance to the Deity consists in our intellectual nature, 
so that in which we differ from him is our sensual 
nature. Our duty, therefore, is, to render ourselves 
independent of sensual wants, to mortify our passions 
by abstaining from the gratification of them, to culti- 
vate the intellect, and to restrain and curb the desires 
of the body. Other lower motives will, of course, be 
found occasionally introduced, as likely to influence 
those who were inaccessible to the higher and purer 
considerations ; a but all systems of ethics permit 
this practice, without it being deemed necessary that 
low motives should form a part of the system. 

The great end and object of life was, according to 
a Xen. Mem. iv. 5. 



206 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Socrates, the perfection of the intellect. Our great 
moral duty, knowledge ; the object of all knowledge, 
one — truth, the good, the beautiful, the divine reason. 

It was here that the carrying out his theory led him 
beyond the confines of truth. All virtue was thus 
resolved into knowledge, or scientific wisdom (cocpiu) ; 
and hence the paradoxical and contradictory doctrine 
of Socrates, which Aristotle, in his more practical 
ethical system, thought it so important to refute and 
counteract. Socrates held that, if all virtue was 
science (ff0<£/a), no one could knowingly commit sin. a 
For he that knew what was right would do it. There- 
fore men err from ignorance of what is right, and those 
who are wicked are so involuntarily. How likely this 
doctrine was to mislead others, and how capable it was 
of misrepresentation to the prejudice of its author, 
is plain. Even if Socrates could have satisfactorily 
explained it, others would have wrested it to their 
destruction ; and if his pure-minded opposition to the 
sensuality and immorality of the popular mythology 
subjected him to the charge of impiety, such a doc- 
trine as this might easily be distorted into the vague 
charge of corrupting the youth. 

Out of the reformation in philosophy which Socrates 
effected, sprang all the great schools of Greece. The 
public and unconnected teaching of the great reformer 
and moral missionary, was succeeded by systematic 
scholasticism. Aristippus founded the Cyrenaic school, 
Antisthenes that of the Cynics. The voluntary exile 
a Xen. Mem. iii. 9. 



SCHOOLS TO WHICH HE GAVE RISE. 207 

of his immediate friends after his persecution and 
death, led to the foundations of those of Megara, Elis, 
and Eretria. Afterwards, in safer but not less stirring 
times, Plato gathered around him the disciples of his 
Academy ; and still later, when Athenian liberty had 
expired, the Peripatetics listened to the doctrines of 
Aristotle. 

A brief notice of the intermediate period will be 
necessary, before proceeding to that of the times and 
doctrines of these two great philosophers. 



208 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XX. 



BIOGRAPHY OF ARISTIPPUS. — THE CTRENAIC SCHOOL THE PARENT 

OF THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. ITS DOCTRINES DEGENERATE 

AND CORRUPT. POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE TEACHING 

OF ARISTIPPUS AND SOCRATES. THE CYRENAIC FOURFOLD DIVI- 
SION OF THE SUBJECTS OF SCIENCE. LIFE OF ANTISTHENES. 

NEGATIVE CHARACTER OF THE CYNIC PHILOSOPHY. THE STYLE 

OF ANTISTHENES. HIS TEACHING GENERALLY ETHICAL. HIS 

LOGICS. THE UNPOPULARITY OF HIS MORAL TEACHING CAUSED IT 

TO BE MISREPRESENTED. EUCLIDES, AND THE SCHOOL OF MEGARA. 

THE DOCTRINES OF EUCLIDES PARTLY ELEATIC, PARTLY SOCRATIC. 

Aristippus, born (about) B.C. 465. 

Aristippus was a native of Cyrene, in Africa, and, 
from bis residence at tbe court of the elder Dionysius, 
as well as his discreditable intimacy with the noto- 
rious Lais, and the relation in which he stood to 
Socrates, makes it probable that the date of his birth 
was about B.C. 465. a Like many other philosophers, 
who from this very circumstance had leisure to devote 
themselves to liberal studies, he was the son of wealthy 
parents. Born in a city of luxury and prosperity, the 
capital of a rich district, enjoying a delightful climate, 
and situated in the midst of a beautiful and fertile 

a Diod. xv. 76. 



NO WORKS OF ARISTIPPUS EXTANT. 209 

plain, the seeds of that self-indulgent voluptuous- 
ness which marks his system, were probably early 
sown in him. and fostered by the indulgence of his 
paternal home. A love of science, and the fame of 
Socrates which had reached his native city, induced 
him to visit Athens and enrol himself among his 
disciples. With him he remained until his death, 
although his selfish pleasure-loving character led him 
to be absent from the painful scene of his deaths 
The same inclination which shrank from any scenes 
calculated to disturb his habitual serenity, led him. as 
he confessed to Socrates, to live in exile rather than 
mix in the troubled politics of his native country.-' 
to be the flatterer and companion of the Syracusan 
tyrant, and to submit contentedly to captivity and 
insult from the Persian satrap. Artaphernes. 

According to some authorities, Aristippus left 
behind him no philosophical writings; and if so. his 
opinions must have been subsequently digested and 
systematized by the school which he founded. Others 
give a large catalogue of his works ; but Ritter in- 
clines to the supposition that they are not genuine; 
and some epistles, which bear his name, have been 
proved by Bentley to be forgeries. 

CYRENAIC SCHOOL. 

The Cyrenaic school, so called from the birth-place 
of its founder. Aristippus.. was the parent of the Epicu- 

4 Plato, Phsed. c Xen. Mem. ii. 1, 

VOL. II. P 



210 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

rean philosophy, and is said to have been even more 
sensual than its offspring/ That man's chief good and 
highest happiness consisted in sensual enjoyment, was 
the leading dogma of its corrupt teaching. 1 " Although, 
therefore, Aristippus professed the profoundest admi- 
ration for Socrates, he was a degenerate disciple of 
his great master. He held that all things were natu- 
rally subservient to the use and pleasure of man, 
and that all man need beware of was, the becoming 
a slave to them. If he avoided this, all enjoyment 
was lawful. 

This principle of the Cyrenaic school is alluded to 
by Horace, when he says, 

" Nunc in Aristippi furtim prsecepta relabor, 
Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor." c 

And the licentious philosopher himself illustrates it in 
the following saying : — 

"E%w rrjv Acu£a, ovk e-^ojj,ai V7r6 rrjg AaiSog. 

The corollary which he drew from this doctrine rescues 
it from entire condemnation, that all circumstances 
and fortunes alike, prosperity as well as adversity, 
were capable of ministering to the happiness of man. 

" Omnis Aristippum decuit color et status et res." d 

The only relation which subsists between the So- 
cratic teaching and the Cyrenaic school, is, that, owing 
to Aristippus being a disciple of Socrates, the latter 

a Gesner in Hor. b Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3. 

c Hor. Epis. i. i. 18. d Ibid. Epis. i. xvii. 23. 



CYRENAIC DOCTRINES. 211 

may be said to owe its origin to the former; but so 
opposite were the characters of the self-indulgent 
voluptuary and man of the world, and the stern 
moralist and contemplative philosopher, that little 
resemblance can be traced between the Socratic and 
Cyrenaic doctrines. 

The first point of resemblance is the superiority 
which the Cyrenaics attributed to ethical over phy- 
sical science. The mysteries of the latter they thought 
beyond the powers of human comprehension, whilst the 
obvious importance of the former, in a practical point 
of view, rendered them in their estimation the proper 
subject of all inquiry. The term, therefore, which 
they applied to all science, whether logical, physical, 
or moral was ro jjQixov, implying by this, that all philo- 
sophy was subordinate to this one branch, and could 
only be usefully studied in this point of view. 

To say that they entirely neglected the study of 
natural phenomena is an exaggeration. It is obvious 
from the following fivefold division adopted by them 
of the subjects of science, that the fourth head implies 
physical, the fifth logical science. 1. Things chosen 
and avoided (rat, aigirat, zut ra <j>svzrd) ; 2. Passions 
(ra waOfi); 3. Actions (at yrga&tg); 4. Causes (at at- 
rial ) ; 5. Proofs (at wiortig). 

The second point of resemblance is to be found 
in the objects of choice and aversion. Socrates taught 
that happiness is the chief good, but that men choose 
sensual pleasure, because they do not know in what 
true pleasure consists. Both, therefore, agreed in 

p2 



212 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

considering pleasure the chief good, although the 
idea which Socrates formed of it was purer and truer. 
Aristippus, as has been already stated, taught that 
man must maintain his authority over pleasure, as 
over all other things, and must not become its slave. 
Hence it followed as a corollary that the enjoyment 
of present pleasure alone was permitted, desire was 
strictly forbidden, because it coveted that which was 
beyond man's power, and therefore caused him to be 
subject instead of to govern. The inculcation of this 
carelessness and indifference as to the moral quality 
of actions, was entirely in accordance with the tra- 
ditional character of the philosopher, who, we are 
told, on one occasion, when travelling through the 
Desert of Libya, bade his slaves throw away a rich 
treasure rather than permit the rapidity of his progress 
to be impeded. 51 

" Grsecus Aristippus, qui servos projicere aurum 
In media jussit Libya, quia tardius irent 
Propter onus segnes." b 

The viciousness of this system is self-evident. It 
makes prudence a vice instead of a virtue, because 
prudence implies the sacrifice of present indulgence, 
prompted by a desire of some future higher, but un- 
seen, and therefore uncertain good. It destroys, as 
Hitter well observes, the unity of moral purpose. 

The second division of the subjects of science, had 
for its object the definition of pleasure and pain, the 
showing that they were in their nature positive and 
a Diog. Laert. ii. 77. b Hor. Sat. n. iii. 100. 



PLEASURE AND PAIN. 213 

affections of the soul, the one a gentle, the other a 
violent agitation (zivqcig) of it. Pleasure was not, as 
the Epicureans taught, a mere negation of pain, nor 
pain a negation of pleasure. 

The soul, when influenced by pleasure, was said 
to be like the sea, not glassy as in a dead calm, but 
gently rippling beneath the breath of the zephyr. 
When agitated by pain it was like the sea upheaved 
and tossed by the violence of a tempest. 

Actions were in themselves destitute of moral 
quality, either good or evil. Nothing determined 
their quality except human law and custom. The 
only difference between them was measured by the 
result. The highest inducement to justice, rather 
than injustice, was, that " honesty is the best policy." 

In physics, or rather metaphysics, the axiom of 
this school was, that each individual is conscious of 
the affections (kuOti) of his own mind, but not of the 
causes by which they are produced. To know, there- 
fore, what truth is absolutely is impossible, although 
each man may know what his sensations are, which 
are the only avenues to knowledge. Hence men may 
agree in the use of common terms, but they cannot 
be sure that there is any identity in the conceptions 
which they express. How sad was this scepticism 
when compared with the teaching of Socrates, with 
his humble estimate of the vastness of human igno- 
rance, and its inability to grasp infinite truth, and 
therefore to make assertions dogmatically and arro- 
gantly. 



214 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Such were the early doctrines of the Cyrenaic 
school; for of their logical theory, comprised in the 
fifth division, there is no information. In the times 
of Alexander's successors the Cyrenaic doctrines un- 
derwent considerable modifications. 



Antisthenes. 

Antisthenes was the son of an Athenian father, and, 
according to Suidas and Diogenes Laertius, of a 
Thracian mother. He was the disciple, first of the 
sophist Gorgias, and afterwards of Socrates, and was 
one of those who were present at the death-bed of 
his instructor.* A warrior in his early years, he 
fought at the battle of Tanagra, and died at Athens 
at the age of seventy. 

The school which he founded met in the Cyno- 
sarges, a gymnasium for Athenians who, like himself, 
were born of foreign mothers. It is more probable 
and consistent with analogy, that from this circum- 
stance his followers were called Cynics, than that 
they owed their designation to their snarling manners 
and dog-like mode of life. His opinions were in 
direct antagonism to those of the Cyrenaic school. 
In fact, they took the form rather of a negation of 
what he considered their errors, than a positive ex- 
position of truth. The knowledge which he thought 
most important was to unlearn error (to zaza cctto- 
(Acideiv). As the founder of the Cyrenaic sect, nursed 
a Plato, PhEed. 



AUSTERITY OF ANTISTHENES. 215 

in the lap of luxury, became easy-tempered, self- 
indulgent, and indifferent, inclined to make the best 
of things as he found them, so Antisthenes, born in 
poverty, and excluded from political rights, as wanting 
the pure blood of an Athenian citizen, set at defiance 
the external accidents of fortune. His temper, pro- 
bably soured by the consciousness of an inferior po- 
sition in life, gave to his teaching the bitterness of 
sarcasm and invective, rather than a calm spirit of 
philosophical inquiry. Probably the vicious luxury 
which he saw prevalent around him, inspired him 
with that just moral indignation which was deve- 
loped in the writers of the old comedy, and under 
similar circumstances in the noble sentiments of the 
Roman satirists. 

In his outward garb and appearance he was him- 
self a type and example of his teaching — not merely 
teaching a contempt for external goods, but professing 
poverty as a duty, austere in practice as in creed. 
It was not likely that a philosophy such as this 
would be popular in refined and luxurious Athens, 
especially when even inquirers were repulsed by the 
biting sarcasm and ostentatious vanity of the philo- 
sopher, a pride which exhibited itself in mock hu- 
mility, and which provoked Socrates to tell him that 
it was visible through the holes in his robe. Hence 
he found few disciples, and Diogenes, who was most 
congenial to him, was the only one who remained 
with him until his death. His style is vehement and 
powerful, yet pure and elegant. Amongst the frag- 



216 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ments of his works are two oratorical exercises (^g- 
Kirai), entitled " Ajax " and " Ulysses," and also an 
epistle. 8 

Although, like Socrates, he stood forward as a 
moral reformer, and, therefore, his philosophy was 
almost entirely ethical, and his treatment of the sub- 
ject generally negative and antagonistic, he at times 
soared to the higher regions of metaphysical science. 
He asserted, in direct opposition to the popular my- 
thology, that there was but one God of the natural 
world, without form, or likeness to any earthly being. b 

With respect to the science of mind, or logic, 
wherever he saw any difficulty which he could not 
surmount, he denied the possibility of doing so ; for 
example, he asserted that definition was impossible, 
because he saw that correct definition was difficult. 
To define essence he held to be impossible, because it 
consisted in ascribing a quality which may be seen in 
the concrete, but which cannot be seen in the abstract, 
and was, in fact, only its point of resemblance to some 
other things. For example, we can see man, the 
concrete (di»0gcMrog), but not man-ness the abstract 
(ctvOgaKorqc,) ; and again, when we predicate whiteness 
of silver, we only state the quality in which it re- 
sembles tin. 

The unpopularity of his moral teaching has sub- 
jected it to much misrepresentation, so that it is 
difficult to determine how many of the doctrines 

a Winckelman, fragm. Antisth. ; Reiske, vol. viii. ; Orell. Epp. 
Soc. b Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 1. 



HIS TEACHING MISREPRESENTED. 217 

ascribed to him are really his. It is plain that his 
idea of the highest good was a life according to vir- 
tue. Virtue is sufficient for happiness, and therefore 
the virtuous man is self-sufficient, and independent of 
every external good. This doctrine of independence 
pushed to a vicious extent, led to a rude contempt 
for all civil institutions, and even for the decent 
customs of civilized life ; but this unnatural isolation 
could not overcome the natural tendencv of human 
sympathies, and even Antisthenes was not deaf to 
the claims of friendship, if the choice of friends was 
influenced by a regard to virtue. Virtue (he held) is 
learned by teaching, and consists in practical wisdom 
((pgovrjGig), united with strength of character (jgx v s) 5 °f 
this needful ingredient of manliness he considered 
Hercules as the symbol, whose temple, as a constant 
memorial to his disciples overlooked his gymnasium. 

Euclides. 

The persecution and death of Socrates dispersed 
his disciples, and they found in Megara a temporary 
refuge from popular fury. a Amongst the earliest of 
his followers was Euclides, a native of Megara, which 
circumstance doubtless determined the rest in choosing 
their abode. 

Previously to his acquaintance with Socrates, he 
had attached himself to the Eleatic philosophy. His 
doctrines, therefore, were Eleatic, tinctured with the 
a Diog. Laert. ii. 106 ; Cic. Acad. ii. 42. 



218 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ethics and logic of Socrates. Although, in temper, 
mild and gentle, approaching even to indolence and 
indifference, he was of a dialectical turn of mind, 
and his inclination for subtle disputations, most of 
which were fallacies, subjected him to the rebuke of 
Socrates. 

The school which he founded was termed the Me- 
garian. We are told that in reasoning he adopted 
the elenchthic, or indirect, method that is, the redudio 
ad absurdum; and in this he was followed by his 
school, the later members of which, on account of 
their skill in this method of refutation, were some- 
times called Eristici or Dialectici. Although he was 
the author of six dialogues, none of them have been 
preserved. 



BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO. 219 



CHAPTER XXI. 

BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO. HIS TRAVELS. OBJECTS OF HIS THREE JOUR- 
NEYS TO SICILY. FALSE VIEWS RESPECTING HIS PHILOSOPHY. 

TESTIMONY OF ARISTOTLE. THE BEAUTY OF HIS STYLE. THE 

DRAMATIC CHARACTER OF THE PLATONIC DIALOGUE. — THE DIA- 
LOGUES ARRANGED IN TRILOGIES AND TETRALOGIES. SOME AR- 
RANGEMENT NECESSARY. THE DIFFICULTIES AND MODE OF RECON- 
CILING THEM. HIS SPURIOUS WRITINGS. POINTS TO WHICH ATTEN- 
TION MUST BE PAID IN ARRANGING HIS GENUINE WORKS. THE 

DIALOGUES WHICH ARE THE MOST SOCRATIC NOT NECESSARILY THE 

EARLIEST. THE TRUE TEST OF THEIR ORDER. SCHLEIERMACHER's 

ARRANGEMENT. 

Plato, born B.C. 429. 

The most important events of an author's life often 
become a key to his works, and an invaluable assist- 
ance to understanding them. It is, therefore, much 
to be regretted that there exists so little trust-worthy 
information respecting the life of Plato, and especially 
respecting his travels. The life by Diogenes Laertius 
is of little authority, that by Tenneman, prefixed to 
his system of the Platonic philosophy, comprehends 
all the results of modern investigation. 

In the month of May, b.c, 429, 01. Ixxxvii., 4, a 
was born at Athens, or, as others say, at iEgina, 
the greatest philosopher whom the world ever 
3 Athenseus, v. p. 217; Clinton, Fasti Hellenici. 



220 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

saw. This epoch is marked by the death of the 
noble-minded Pericles in the following year, when 
Athens lost, in the plague, the flower of her popula- 
tion. The boyhood of Plato was passed during that 
period of demoralization and suffering, the Pelopon- 
nesian war. He was of illustrious descent, both by 
the father's and mother's side ; through the former 
being related to Codrus, through the latter to Solon. 
His real name was Aristocles, but the name of Plato 
(from TXccrvg, broad) was given him because of the 
breadth of his shoulders. Weakness of voice pre- 
vented him from becoming an orator, and therefore, 
from taking that active part in political life, to which 
his birth entitled him : but being endowed with a 
pure taste and a love for literature, he devoted himself 
to poetry : and tradition tells, a that emblematic of the 
mellifluous sweetness of his style, a swarm of bees 
settled upon his infant lips whilst sleeping in his 
cradle. There is another legend, which also sym- 
bolizes the sweetness of his eloquence. One night he 
dreamed that he folded in his arms a young swan, 
which, when fully fledged, soared to heaven, singing 
with inconceivable sweetness. 

In his early years he manifested a talent for poetry, 
which afterwards influenced his later compositions, 
He attempted both epic and tragedy, but, struck with 
his immeasurable inferiority to Homer, he burnt his 
poems, and gave up poetry for ever. He then com- 
menced the study of philosophy, and, when quite a 
a Cic. de Div. i. 36. 



TRAVELS OF PLATO. 221 

youth, attended the instructions of Cratylus, and 
learned from him the theories of Heraclitus-* 

A: twenty years of age, as he himself tells us, fc he 
devoted himself altogether to philosophy, and became 
a disciple of Socrates, for whom, to the time of his 
death, he felt the warmest attachment which ever ex- 
isted between tutor and pupil. The resembb. 
discovered between some of the Platonic doctrines, 
and those of Oriental philosophers, and the notion 
so long prevalent, that Greek philosophy origin 
in the East, have caused many voyages to be attributed 
to Plato without sufficient authorky. 

Some writers c would have us believe that he visited 
Phoenicia, and there learnt from the Hebrews, the 
knowledge of the true God ; and that he was in- 
structed by the Magi and the Assyrians in their 
Tins of philosophy. Allusions to parts of their 
systems furnish no proof of this, because acquaintance 
with them might, without personal intercourse, have 
been gained at Athens, which had now become the 
home of literature and science. The travels of Plato, 
which are supported by the best authority, are to 
Italy, Sicily, Cvrene, and Egypt-* He evidently re- 
turned to Athens, ex. 3 9 5 ; for Diogenes Laertins e 
informs us that he served at Tanagra, Corinth, and 
Delium; not, of course, the celebrated battles of 
Tanagra and Delium, but some other engagements in 

Y- * Plato, Symp.1 " 

use Disp. it. 19. * Clinton, Fasti HeUenid, ii. 

e Biog. laert. iiL 6, 7, 8. 



B 



222 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the Corinthian or Theban war. Previously to his 
more distant travels, he, together with the other 
friends of Socrates, retired to Megara, where it is 
probable that some of his dialogues were written. 
Three times he visited Sicily ; a once, in order to see 
the eruption of iEtna, in the reign of the elder 
Dionysius, when he was in his fortieth year; twice 
during that of the younger. On his return to Athens, 
after his first voyage thither, he began to give gra- 
tuitous instruction in philosophy, in the groves of the 
Academy, partly in those dialogues, which, though 
not the earliest philosophical writings in that form, 
have never been equalled, partly in more formal lec- 
tures. Besides the numbers who crowded to his 
public instructions, he was daily in the society of a 
chosen few, who sat at his frugal board, and listened 
with enthusiasm to the words of wisdom which 
flowed so eloquently from his lips. b 

A period of twenty-two years elapsed between 
his first and second voyages to Sicily. His object 
on this occasion was, to instruct the younger Diony- 
sius, and, together with Dio, to remodel the Syra- 
cusan constitution. In this design, however, he 
failed ; Dio was banished by the tyrant, and Plato 
returned to Athens. 

In the object of his third journey, which was to 
effect a reconciliation between Dio and Dionysius, he 
was equally unsuccessful. He was now advanced in 

a Plato. Ep. vii. ; Athen. xi. ; Diog. Laert. iii. 18. 
b Athen. i. 7 ; x. 14. 



HE HARMONIZED PHILOSOPHY. "223 

years, and the rest of bis honoured life passed peace- 
fully, in literary occupation, and the society of his 
disciples. He died on his birthday, B.C. 347, at the 
age of eighty-one, his mental powers unimpaired, and 
whilst employed in the very act of writing. 

The following epigram was written to his memory 
by Speusippus ; — 

^(D/jlcl filv iv koKttolq Ka-i\a roh yaia UXdrcovog, 

u Earth in her friendly bosom the body of Plato embraces, 
But his soul immortal holds rank with the gods and the godlike." 

Although Socrates was the master under whom Plato 
studied, and although, in his modest self-abasement 
and devoted affection, he attributed to his instructions 
all his philosophical knowledge, it must not be sup- 
posed that his enlarged and enlightened mind con- 
fined itself to the study of one system, or to the 
lessons of one instructor, however highly he may have 
respected him. In his boyhood he studied the philo- 
sophy of Heraclitus, in Italy he became acquainted 
with that of Pythagoras. The probability is, that he 
examined the whole range of Greek philosophy ; for 
he evidently saw and avoided the falsehood of its two 
extremes, Ionian materialism, and the pure idealism 
of the Eleatic school. In fact he may be said to have 
arranged and moulded into one harmonious whole, the 
unconnected parts left by the labours of his prede- 
cessors. 

Schleiermacher observes, that two unfounded opi- 
nions have prevailed from very early times respecting 



224 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Plato and his Dialogues ; first, that in them there is no 
consistency or system, either of thinking or teaching, 
that his principles are uncertain and contradictory, and 
that no mutual relation or interdependence between 
his works can possibly be discovered, because in reality 
there is none. The labours of modern scholars and 
philosophers have shown the incorrectness of this view, 
and proved that it arose from a misunderstanding of 
Platonism, and an inability to follow out and investi- 
gate his train of thought. The fact is, that Plato's 
system is, perhaps more than any other, the develop- 
ment of one idea. The keystone of his creed is that 
the human soul has the power of motion residing in 
itself, that therefore it neither comes into existence 
nor ceases to exist : that all spiritual essence is the 
same, including even Deity ; that the soul has al- 
ready known that which really is ; and, although it 
has lost the knowledge, partially recovers it by recol- 
lection. 

The other prevalent idea is, that there was some 
secret and more systematic philosophy, never com- 
mitted to writing, but contained in oral lectures and 
conversations, transmitted only by tradition ; and 
therefore, in vain to be looked for in his works. 
These professed to expound and define more accu- 
rately the doctrines contained in the dialogues. A 
priori, this view is just what might be expected to 
result from the universal admiration and reverence 
with which Plato has been regarded in all ages of the 
world, and from the wide field for speculation and 



TRADITIONAL TEACHING- 225 

expansion furnished by the imaginative and poetical 
method in which he treats philosophy. The relation 
in which unauthoritative tradition stands to the 
written doctrines of the Christian revelation furnishes 
a case somewhat parallel. But, however strong* 
the temptation may be to indulge in such a view, 
there are no historical traces of such traditional 
teaching. It is plain, moreover, that where the 
aygcapa }>6y (jucctcc differ from the written works, they 
must be unsafe guides ; where they coincide, they are 
unnecessary. 

The testimony of Aristotle on this point, although 
negative, is most satisfactory. He was for many 
years a disciple and intimate associate of Plato. The 
character of his mind was such as readily to reduce 
to system all that he had heard, as well as read : if 
there had been any authentic doctrines not contained 
in Plato's written works, not only would he have been 
aware of their existence, but he would have made use 
of them. He, however, although he alludes to tradi- 
tional teaching, 3 never appeals to its authority, whilst, 
on the contrary, he is constantly quoting from, or re- 
ferring to, doctrines which we can trace for ourselves 
in the genuine Platonic dialogues. 

The philosophy of Plato was the first attempt to 
reconcile and systematize previous discoveries, and 
in this task he was followed with even greater suc- 
cess by the great master of philosophical system, 
Aristotle. 

a Arist. Phys. iv. 2. 
VOL. II. Q 



226 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Plato, therefore, takes a comprehensive view of all 
ancient philosophy, and this, which exposed him 
unfairly to the charge of plagiarism,* is of itself suffi- 
cient defence against the accusation; for, by the 
copious details with which he filled up its barren 
outlines, and the new ideas with which he so richly 
illustrated them, he made the discoveries which he 
adopted fairly his own, and invested them with all 
the charms of novelty and originality. 

No language can do justice to the exquisite beauty 
of his style. Attic prose, the most beautiful of all prose, 
and most readily appreciated by the English ear, had 
now reached its zenith of perfection. And as that of 
his fellow-disciple, Xenophon, has never been equalled 
for simplicity and perspicuity, so that of Plato has no 
rival for skill and elegance. We discern in it the fer- 
vid genius of the poet, combined with the terse accu- 
racy of the philosopher. The playfulness of familiar 
discourse, which is so necessary to the dramatic truth- 
fulness of dialogue, is always polished and graceful, 
and never degenerates into coarseness and vulgarity. 
He possesses all the power which distinguished So- 
crates, of drawing his illustrations from the most 
homely objects, and yet he is free from the unseemly 
coarseness in which his great master so frequently 
delighted. Cicero, whose critical taste discerned this 
combination of singular excellencies, said, that if 
Jupiter talked with men he would converse in the 
language of Plato. It is said, by his anonymous bio- 

a Diog. Laert. iii. 



PLATONIC DIALOGUE. 227 

grapher, that he took for his model the pure Attic 
phraseology of the Aristopkanic comedy ; and the 
same genius which enabled the comic writer to clothe 
in metrical language the familiar converse of every 
day Athenian life, taught the philosopher to express in 
graceful prose the gorgeous ideas of his vivid ima- 
gination. 

Plato was not the first to throw his discourses into 
the form of dialogue. The Socratic method of arguing, 
the object of which was to lead the pupil to discover 
truth for himself rather than to communicate it doo-_ 

o 

matically, and to force an opponent to convict himself 
of error, had already taught some of his followers to 
adopt this form. Xenophon, Antisthenes, Euclides, 
and others, had already composed philosophical dia- 
logues, but in dramatic effect they were all far sur- 
passed by Plato. A dialogue, observes Schlegel, a may 
be philosophical, but not dramatic ; and this difference 
he illustrates by a reference to the dialogues of Plato. 
No one has ever doubted that the principal charm of 
the Platonic dialogue is its mimetic and dramatic 
quality. It is not merely instructive but entertaining. 
The interest of the reader is kept alive waiting for the 
issue, and the effect eventually to be produced on the 
speakers by their progressive interchange of thought, 
just as the spectator anxiously watches the progress of 
the action and expects the completion of his satisfac- 
tion in the denouement of the play. The scene seems 
to pass before the eyes of the reader invested with 

a Lect. i. 

^■2 



228 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

life and reality. We imagine that we form part of the 
society, and are present at the conversations. Many of 
the arguments and objections are just those which we 
should ourselves be ready to offer : they are fairly put 
and met, not merely suggested for the sake of being 
overthrown. The presence of this dramatic character 
is one test for determining the genuineness of those 
dialogues, respecting which doubts have been enter- 
tained; and it seems especially to have struck the 
earlier commentators. Aristophanes, of Byzantium, 
the grammarian, actually arranged some of them in 
trilogies, just as if they had been intended, like the 
tragedies of the great dramatists, for theatrical repre- 
sentation. In still later times Thrasyllus rearranged 
them in tetralogies. It is plain, however, that both 
these arrangements were unwarrantable and arbitrary, 
and were the result of carrying too far a favourite 
idea. 

The orderly and logical character of Plato's mind, 
however — which is abundantly evident, notwithstand- 
ing his fervid imagination — caused it to be felt that 
some arrangement was necessary ; that, however com- 
plete in itself each dialogue might be, there was some 
connection between them; that they were parts of 
one great system. 

The arrangement, nevertheless, was attended with 
great difficulty. Supposing that his discoveries and 
theories developed themselves in the order which 
might have been naturally expected, some dialogues, 
which upon the whole contained internal evidence 



SPURIOUS WRITINGS. 229 

of his early productions, contained also passages which 
implied more philosophical maturity. The only me- 
thod of reconciling such difficulties with the order and 
classification adopted, was to suppose, first, that such 
passages were the expressions of knowledge which 
Plato had acquired from others ; and, secondly, that 
additions were subsequently made to the works which 
he wrote in his earlier years. 

Amongst the Platonic writings which are now al- 
most universally acknowledged to be spurious, the 
" Epistles " are, perhaps, the most skilful imitations of 
his style. The rest, of which it is unnecessary to give 
a catalogue, differ so much both in composition and 
matter, that no doubt is entertained upon the subject 
by modern scholars. 

Whilst the universal admiration of Plato, and the 
respect paid to his authority, led to the " pious fraud " 
of attributing to him spurious writings and traditional 
doctrines, modern times are indebted to it for the 
state of perfection in which the dialogues have been 
handed down. Whatever works may be lost, there 
are contained in those extant, ample materials for a 
complete analysis of his philosophical system. We 
have the same means of comprehending it as those 
disciples who attended his lectures and listened to his 
oral instruction in the academy. 

With respect to his genuine works, although Socher 
has excluded four important ones — " Parmenides," " So- 
phistes," "Politicus," and "Critias;" Aste still more, 
including the " Apology," and the " Crito ;" and even 



230 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Schleiermaclier, whose arrangement is incomparably 
the best, rejects the " Hippias Minor " a and " Men- 
exenus," b there do not appear to be adequate grounds 
for the rejection of them. It remains, therefore, to 
endeavour to arrange them in some such order as will 
exhibit which were his earlier and which his later 
compositions. 

This order can only be determined by the internal 
evidence, and the points to which attention must be 
paid are : — (1) The artistic skill displayed in compo- 
sition, including gracefulness and polish of style, and 
dramatic and imitative power. (2) The gradual 
development of his philosophical system, from its 
first principles to its most complicated results, and 
the progressive advance of his intellectual powers. 

As there is no doubt that literary skill increases 
with literary practice, and in proportion to the unfold- 
ing of the mental powers ; and dramatic and imitative 
art, is improved by a larger and wider experience and 
intercourse with human nature, and therefore marked 
inferiority in these points would form a strong objec- 
tion to assigning any dialogue to Plato's later years, 
the first of these considerations must not be lightly 
passed over : but still too much reliance must not 
be placed on it as an argument, because the proba- 
bility is that an author of exquisite taste, like Plato, 
would often recur to his earlier writings, with a view 
to improving their external form. The prevalent 
notion that Plato thoroughly revised the whole of his 
a Arist. Met. v. 29. b Ibid. Rhet. iii. 14. 



VIVIDNESS OF PLATO'S IMAGINATION. 231 

works, is supported by the old tradition that he valued 
so highly beauty of style as to correct and improve, 
frequently, the introduction to his great work the 
" Republic ; " a and Dionysius also bears testimony 
to a prevalent notion that he never left off combing 
and curling (zrzviZpjv zoci fioarguyjZpv) his dialogues, 15 even 
till he was eighty years of age. Except in the espe- 
cial case of Plato, we should expect to find, as we 
advanced chronologically, more of philosophy and less 
of imaginative power ; for it is a law of the human 
mind, that, as the powers of reason and analysis 
strengthen, those of the imagination decline; but 
Plato's imagination appears to have been as vivid 
in his old age as it was in his youth. But even he 
does not form a complete exception to the general 
rule, for the " Republic," the " Laws," and the 
"Timseus," which are acknowledged as his latest 
works, exhibit the least imaginative and dramatic 
power. 

To determine, therefore, the present question, the 
principal weight ought to be given to the evidence 
of intellectual progress. It must not be assumed 
that those dialogues, which contain pure Socratic doc- 
trines, are for that reason the earliest ; because it 
must be remembered that he studied the philosophy 
of Heraclitus before he became acquainted with 
Socrates, and that during the whole time of his 
intercourse with his great master, he was living in 

a Wolf, Proleg. in Homer, p. 153. 

b De Oomp. Verb. 25 ; Quinct. Inst. viii. 6, 64. 

c Bitter, in loco. 



232 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

an atmosphere of philosophy, in a city in which 
various scientific systems were habitually discussed ; 
and therefore he must have had many opportunities 
of examining them all. The criterion of order must 
therefore be the development of his own mind, the 
unfolding and perfecting of that orderly system which 
can be deduced from his writings. It must be not 
a mere expansion of the Socratic system, but an 
inquiry, becoming gradually more and more compre- 
hensive, a progressive widening of the sphere of 
scientific research by an original mind, formed and 
imbued with Socratic teaching. 

Many arrangements have been proposed, but that 
of Schleiermacher, although liable to some objections, 
appears the most probable and most generally ad- 
mitted. 

He arranges the Platonic dialogues in three classes, 
according to the philosophical progress which they 
display. In the first he places the " Phsedrus," " Pro- 
tagoras," and " Parmenides," together with some of the 
smaller dialogues, the subjects of which are in con- 
nexion with them ; and to this period must be referred 
the " Apology," the " Crito," and the " Euthyphron," 
dictated by his attachment to the master he had just 
lost, the dates of which are universally fixed imme- 
diately after the death of Socrates. Bitter assigns 
the " Gorgias " to this first period, because of its 
connexion with the subject-matter of the " Phsedrus " 
and " Protagoras." Schleiermacher places it in the 
second class, which belongs to the period when 



ARRANGEMENT OF DIALOGUES. 233 

his logical and dialectic philosophy was fully 
matured. In the second are arranged the " Gorgias," 
"Thesetetus," " Menon," " Euthydemus," " Cratylus," 
" Sophistes," " Politicus," " Philebus," " Symposium ," 
and "Pheedon." In the third, the "Critias," " Politia," 
" Timseus," and the " Laws." The last three are 
universally acknowledged to have been his latest dia- 
logues. Such is the nearest satisfactory approxima- 
tion which has been made to a chronological arrange- 
ment of the writings of Plato, and such the grounds 
and principles on which their order and relative posi- 
tion have been established. 



234 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

plato's idea of philosophy. — the relation which the one 

bears to the many. science one. its object the knowledge 

of god. the relative position which other sciences occupy. 

divisions of the platonic philosophy. senses in which 

he uses the term dialectic. dialectic. he confutes pre- 
existing errors. knowledge not the result of sensation. 

the consequence of the eleatic theories. plato's own 

theory of the relation of mind to matter. the doctrine 

of the idea. idealism and conceptualism compared. plato's 

idea of god. his description of deity. doctrine of remi- 
niscence. statement of physical theory in the tim^us. 

arguments by which it is established. the soul of the 

world. the soul of man. its nature and immortality. 

the objects of the symposium and the ph^do compared. 

one great argument for immortality to which the rest 

are subordinate. mythical representations. free will. 

origin of evil. 

Before examining the philosophy of Plato in its 
several divisions, it is necessary to state what was his 
idea of philosophy generally. It is then, according 
to him, the passionate love of wisdom. This love 
springs from the natural impulse after knowledge 
which is the property of man's intellectual nature, 
the consciousness that knowledge is the only satis- 
faction of our mental wants and necessities. 

In obedience to this impulse, and in order to 



RELATION OF THE ONE TO THE MANY. 235 

satisfy his intellectual aspirations, the philosopher 
investigates nature — both external and internal to 
himself. He endeavours to discover the constitution 
of the world and of his own mind. His object is not 
only to make observations, and to collect facts, but 
to generalize and classify — to discover a law. He 
sees many phenomena, many effects ; he traces them 
backwards to their causes ; and, at length, by con- 
tinuing his analytical process, he ends in the discovery 
of one fundamental cause — eternal, uniform, pervading 
all nature. The many — that is the phenomena — are 
the results and developments of this Unity ; the 
knowledge of all is contained in the knowledge of the 
one. As. therefore, Plato by his analysis arrives, 
through the chain of successive causes, at this one 
source, from which all diverge ; so, when the syn- 
thetical process commences, the foundation and start- 
ing-point of his system is the comprehensiveness and 
oneness of absolute science (htivnifJMi), and its purely 
intellectual nature, which embraces within its sphere 
all truth and all self-consciousness. To investigate the 
nature and essence of science is the subject of one whole 
dialogue, the " Thesetetus." To determine its definition 
he entirely fails ; nor can he do more than state that 
there is no standard with which to compare it, except 
itself; that all terms used in its description involve 
the term science itself; and that the nearest possible 
approach to accurate definition is "right opinion, 
deduced by logical inference." This one, and all-com- 
prehensive science, he designates dialectic. Science, 



236 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

however, though the end of all intellectual energy, 
is not unpractical : it exercises an irresistible control 
over man's moral nature. A man who possesses 
science is constrained to obey the commands imposed 
by this knowledge of good and evil ; so that virtue 
is inseparable from science, and he who does wrong 
and is enslaved by his passions, does not in reality 
possess science. But, he held, such is the imperfec- 
tion of man that he never attains perfect science any 
more than perfect virtue. He must place it before 
him as the aim of all his intellectual energies, even 
though he cannot attain it. God alone can be wise 
(ffoQog) ; man can only be a lover of it (QiXotJOfog)* 
Hence, as wisdom is really in its true sense unattain- 
able by man, its representative is learning ; and, 
therefore, the love of learning and the love of 
wisdom are one and the same, ro ys (piXofjuatieg zcct cpiko- 
ao(pov ruvrov. h 

The object of Plato was evidently the noble one 
of placing before man a high intellectual, and conse- 
quently, by implication, a high moral standard as the 
end and object of his aspirations ; to encourage his 
efforts after the true, the pure, the beautiful, and the 
virtuous, knowing that the character would be purified 
in the endeavour, and that the consciousness of the 
progress made, step by step, would be of itself a 
reward. The object of science was, as he taught, 
the true, the eternal, the immutable, that which is ; 
in one alone could these attributes be found united — 
a Phsed. ii. 78, d. b De Rep. ii. 376, b. 



THE OBJECT OF ALL SCIENCE. 237 

that is God. Man's duty, then, according to the 
Platonic system, is to know God and his attributes, 
and to aim at being under the practical influence of 
this knowledge. This the Christian is taught, but 
much more simply and plainly, to know God, and 
Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, and to propose to 
himself a perfect standard, to be perfect even as his 
Father in heaven is perfect, and to look forward, by 
that help which Plato had no warrant to look for, to 
attain the perfect measure of the fulness of Christ. 

Although Plato believed and taught that man 
ought to strive after and devote himself to the con- 
templation of the One, the Eternal, the Infinite, he 
was humbly conscious that no one could attain to 
the perfection of such knowledge ; that it is too 
wonderful and excellent for human powers. Man's 
incapacity for apprehending this knowledge he at- 
tributed to his soul, during his present state of 
existence, being cramped and confined by its earthly 
tabernacle. 

Only when the soul is freed from the impediment 
of a mortal body, and arrives at its own native 
heavenly dwelling-place, can it behold science (i.e. 
the objects of science) such as it really is. a 

But although his enthusiastic and lofty mind placed 
so high the ideal and the object of pure dialectic 
science, yet he allowed that there were other subdi- 
visions of science, which had subordinate ends in view 
besides the true and the eternal. He adored as it 
a Ph£ed. p. 247, d. i De Rep. vi. 484. 



238 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

were the supreme Good ; he confessed man's nothing- 
ness as compared to it ; he encouraged the intellect to 
soar as high as was permitted in that direction ; but 
he would also have it applied to physical, arithmetical, 
and other sciences, in order to store up materials for 
the pursuit of that master science which comprehends 
all. None but that, is worthy of being the final end 
of man's present intellectual energies ; yet all other 
sciences as furnishing data of which dialectic teaches 
the use and application, are necessary, and therefore 
the pursuit of them praiseworthy. 

Nor did he fail to see that he whose mind was thus 
purified by the application of its intellectual energies, 
would be better adapted to undertake the practical 
business of life, than one who had studied details 
instead of principles, and had been fettered to lower 
and less philosophical views of political, mental, and 
moral philosophy. 

The heads under which the philosophical system of 
Plato must be divided, are those of Dialectics, Physics, 
and Ethics. Under Ethics are included Politics, 
because, in the investigation of moral obligations, 
man is considered in his social relations, and as a 
member of a political community. 

In considering the first of these, it must not be 
forgotten that the term dialectic is used in a totally 
different sense from that in which it is generally 
applied by the ancient philosophers, viz., as the equi- 
valent of logic. Plato, as we have already seen, uses 
it in a far wider and more comprehensive sense, as the 



MEANING OF DIALECTIC. 239 

science of that which is the true, the eternal, the 
immutable. 

Nor is this assertion contradicted by the fact, that 
he does sometimes use the term in its more common 
acceptation.* The art or science of conversing in the 
form of dialogue is, according to Plato, identical with 
that of reasoning, for he considers dialogue as the only 
correct method of clothing argument in language ; 
and the progress of the mind from one judgment to 
another (liocvoia) is, he says, the voiceless dialogue which 
the soul holds with itself. 

Nor, on the other hand, must it be considered that 
this comprehensive sense of dialectic infringes upon 
the domain of physics, for physical science is the 
science of phenomena which are (not like thought or 
self-consciousness) unreal, uncertain, mutable. But 
still, all these divisions, although separable, are closely 
interwoven one with another, dialectic being, with 
Plato, the foundation of all philosophy. We must 
not, therefore, expect to find them treated of in 
separate works, as they are by the more systematic 
Aristotle. We must be content to find that, in 
different dialogues, one subject will predominate, while 
the rest occupy subordinate portions. For example, 
the " Thesetetus," " Sophistes," " Politicus," and " Par- 
menides," are dialectic treatises. The " Timseus'' is, 
upon the whole, physical, and the " Republic" and the 
"Laws" ethical and political. 

a De Rep. vii. 54:0. b Soph. 263. 



240 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



DIALECTIC. 



The learning and industry with which Plato had 
investigated the systems of preceding philosophers, had 
digested and made his own all that was valuable in 
their labours, showed him the necessity of preparing 
the way for building up his own theory, by levelling 
the erroneous views which had pre-occupied the 
ground. He, therefore, in the dialectic dialogues of 
the " Thesetetus," and the " Sophistes," refutes the 
doctrines of the Heraclitic school, as developed by 
Protagoras, and their direct contraries, as held by the 
Eleatse.* He first, then, combats the materialist asser- 
tion of Protagoras, that all knowledge is the result of 
sensation. Without tracing the unsatisfactory subtle- 
ties by which he establishes his conclusion, it is 
sufficient to say that he clearly saw the consequences 
to which the admission of such an axiom leads. He 
saw that, if this assertion were true, there could be no 
such thing as absolute existence ; that each object would 
be, relatively to each individual, such as he perceived 
it to be ; b that even the sentient being who had to pro- 
nounce judgment upon truth, could not always be one 
and the same, for, with variations of circumstances, of 
health for example, the power of sensation varies also. 
Hence there would be nothing real, nothing possessing 
a nature truly its own. Moreover, universal propose 
tions are true, not only as regards the present, but the 

a Xen. Mem. I. i. 14. 
b Theast. p. 152, d. ; p. 166, b. 



PREVIOUS ERROR REFUTED. 241 

future ; but sensation has only reference to the pre- 
sent ; therefore, according to the theory of Protagoras, 
there can be no knowledge, and consequently nothing- 
asserted with truth which will hold good beyond the 
present time. 

The consequence of the Eleatic theories was the 
direct opposite to this, namely, the denial of all know- 
ledge through the medium of the senses ; but to this 
erroneous view the philosophy of Plato was equally 
opposed. Notwithstanding his natural tendency to 
soar from the regions of sense to that of pure intel- 
lectual energy, and the great gulf which, in his views, 
separates pure thought from sensuous perception, 
he saw the absolute necessity of communion between 
the senses and the intellect. Opposed as he was to 
the materialist doctrine, he was unwilling to allow 
the non-existence of anything but pure mind. In 
fact, he stood firm against the two principal strong- 
holds of all infidelity, the one materialism, which 
refuses to believe any thing but what it sees, the 
other idealism, which considers nothing as real except 
the conceptions of each individual mind. 

These fundamental errors having been refuted, his 
own theory of the relation of mind to matter is built 
up upon the following basis. 

Man's nature being composed of soul and body, 
an intimate communion exists between them. There 
are two sources of knowledge, the one sensation, the 
other the reflex action of the mind upon the ideas 
conveyed to it by the external organs. That which is 

VOL. II. R 



242 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

apprehended by the senses is changeable, that which 
is apprehended by the intellect is immutable and 
eternal ; and this permanent and invariable alone con- 
stitutes essence (ouvia). The bodily organs and the 
faculty of sensation being imperfect, are impediments 
to the intellectual contemplation of unchangeable 
truth. Nor will the soul arrive at an adequate con- 
ception of truth, or see things really as they are, until 
it is freed from the body. a True science, then, is to 
know intellectually the essence of things absolutely 
(ro mvto ezotcrov), which he technically terms the idea 
(ilea). This doctrine demands a few words in expla- 
nation. 6 A strong conviction of the instability of the 
sensible appears to have been always present to the 
mind of Plato. The result of this conviction was, the 
sensible is in a state of continual change, and conse- 
quently the sensible is not the true. He assumed, 
therefore, that there exist from all eternity in the all- 
pervading fulness of the Divine Intelligence, of which 
the human soul was part and portion, certain arche- 
typal forms, which are immutable and absolutely 
existent. These are incorporeal, apprehended by the 
intellect alone, the types of which the world and all 
that it contains are the antitypes. All else which 
exists, whether physically or metaphysically, is only 
real so far as it participates in them (^srs^s/, noivwiav 
e%u)> These forms are called by Plato ideas, and 
the idea may be defined, " that which makes every 
thing which is, to be what it is," or, " whatever exhi- 

a Phsed. 65. » See the Phsedo. 



NATURE OF THE IDEA. 243 

bits an eternal truth, which forms the basis of the 
mutability of the sensible." These were the types 
(ftuoGthiiypKra) after which God made all created 
things, impressing their likeness upon matter (vXij), 
which was itself also eternal and formless, yet fitted to 
receive form. 

From the universal nature of the idea, it follows 
that there must be ideas of all abstract qualities, such 
as the good, the beautiful, the evil, health, strength, 
magnitude, colour; also of all sensible objects, such 
as a horse, a temple, a cup, a man — even of each indi- 
vidual man ; e. g., Socrates and Simmias. It is evident 
that the Platonic idea must not be confounded with 
abstract ideas, which are properties, qualities, and acci- 
dents drawn off from objects, and contemplated sepa- 
rately ; as, e.g., we may contemplate the scent or colour 
of a flower. Each of these qualities would have, 
according to the Platonic theory, its corresponding 
idea ; but still, as has been shown, there are other 
ideas which are not abstract. Nor did Plato teach 
that the idea is arrived at by abstraction or generali- 
zation ; he believed that a common term was arrived 
at by these processes, but he also believed that that 
for which it stood had a real independent existence. 
The idea is self-existent, eternal, and becomes known 
to us in our present life by reminiscence, having been 
previously apprehended by the intellect in a former 
state of being. It is plain that the difference between 
the idealism of Plato and the conceptualism of modern 
times is as follows; the conceptualist holds that 

R 2 



244 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

common terms suggest ideas of the classes of things 
which they verbally represent, and that these ideas 
exist only in the mind as mental conceptions. Plato 
held that ideas existed not in the individual mind 
which apprehended them, but in the Divine and all- 
pervading Intellect, of which each individual mind 
formed a portion. 

From this doctrine it follows, that every object of 
science is an idea ; that the Platonic theory is equally 
opposed to the Heraclitic doctrine as reproduced by 
the sophists, which taught that sensation is the only 
source of knowledge ; and to the Eleatic, which, in its 
admiration of unity, denied the eternal existence of 
separate and distinct essences. 

The supreme idea is that of God ; and as the last 
and highest idea amongst all objects of knowledge is 
that of the good, it follows that God and the highest 
good are identical. 21 A belief in God as a rational 
and intelligent Being is innate in man, an instinctive, 
irresistible conviction, the result of the intimate rela- 
tion in which he stands to the Deity, the human soul 
being a part and portion of the Divine mind. Nor 
could he explain the invariable order discernible in 
the universe — which he considered an image, as it 
were, of Deity — except on the hypothesis of design, the 
existence of an intelligent cause, a reasoning mind, 
ruling and regulating the whole course of Nature ; 
and as the order of Nature proves unanswerably the 
existence of an intelligent First Cause, so the perfect 
a De Rep. vii. 517. 



plato's idea of god. 245 

beauty which characterises it is a proof of the good- 
ness of the Deity. a 

Upon the whole, in weighing and comparing the 
passages in which Plato speaks of God, we may come 
to the conclusion that, although his language was 
inadequate, and at times such as would imply a belief 
in a mere abstract rational principle, filling and per- 
vading the universe, — in fact, a belief of a pantheistic 
nature, still the prevailing practical impression influ- 
encing his habits of thought was that of a personal 
Deity. 

Take away from his idea of the human soul all the 
impediments to its free energy — add to it the attri- 
butes of eternity, perfection, goodness, and power, 
and the result is his conception of the divine nature ; 
and however inadequately this belief may be stated, it 
is scarcely possible to conceive it to be any other than 
a practical conviction of a personal Deity, and not 
mere abstract mind. Multitudes of passages might be 
adduced which place this beyond a doubt. He denies 
that the mere abstractions of perfect wisdom and intel- 
lect can exist without a living soul (^vy/i)? He de- 
scribes the Deity just as he would a being possessing 
attributes, as having no sympathy with the wicked, as 
not hearing their prayers, or accepting their offerings. 

The doctrine of reminiscence is the result of his 
doctrine of ideas, of his denying the reality and stabi- 
lity of sensible objects. If sensible objects differ in 

* De Leg. x. 89, b. b Phileb. p. 30. 

c De Le*. x. 905. 



246 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

appearance at different times according to the aspect 
under which they are viewed, the true ideas of which 
the mind forms conceptions cannot correspond with 
them, they may be similar, but not identical. Again, 
the archetypal ideas of the beautiful, the just, the 
good, are far more perfect than the concrete qualities 
so called, which are met with in the domains of sensa- 
tion. These ideas, then, are not acquired by observa- 
tion, although they are drawn out by skilful interroga- 
tion from one who has had no means in this life of 
acquiring them before. A system of questioning may 
be so skilfully framed a that a man may be led to enun- 
ciate all the facts of geometry, from the simplest axioms 
to the most complicated propositions. How then did 
he arrive at this knowledge ? The difficulty is solved 
by the hypothesis that all learning is the recollection 
of things previously known, and for a time dormant 
and forgotten. In that previous state of existence, 
when the human soul was an inhabitant of the ideal 
world, and part of the fulness (srA^y^a ) of Deity, 
it came in contact with those immutable truths and 
eternal ideas of which all earthly forms are mere 
resemblances. Then did God reveal all truth to the 
soul of man, which was a partaker of his own spiritual 
nature. b At the time of birth, when the pure rational 
soul comes in contact with irrational matter, all this is 
forgotten, to be recovered and again recognized gra- 
dually, but at the best imperfectly. Such was the 
theory of reminiscence as held by Plato and his master 
a See the Phsedo. b Tim. p. 41. 



HIS PHYSICAL THEORIES. 247 

Socrates ; and it is clear that this doctrine implies a 
belief in the immortality of the soul. A philosopher, 
who held the pre-existence of the soul, its possession of 
knowledge in that pre-existent state, its communion 
with and participation in the mind of the Deity, would 
have been guilty of inconsistency if he had taught that 
its separation from that body, to which it had been 
united only for a time, the connection with which could 
be traced from the commencement to the end, would 
cause its dissolution and death. 

PHYSICS. 

The best and most systematic statement of Plato's 
physical theories is contained in the dialogue entitled 
"Timseus," and his inclination towards the physical 
doctrines of Pythagoras, led him to represent his 
own system as developed by a Pythagorean. It was 
natural that he should hold the inferiority of this 
science to dialectics, because the object of the former 
was created and variable, that of the latter self- 
existent and eternal, and his view would derive 
support from the vagueness and uncertainty which 
distinguished early physical investigations, owing to the 
tendency of the Greek mind to indulge in a priori 
speculations, instead of devoting itself to the observa- 
tion of phenomena. 

The material out of which the universe is formed he 
describes as always becoming but never actually exist- 
ing. 3 Form being impressed upon this after the like- 
a Tim. p. 50, c. 



248 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ness of the archetypal idea by the creative power of 
God, produced the sensible universe. As, therefore, 
creation is the result of the operation of an intelligent 
First Cause, the aim and object of physical science is 
to investigate the final causes of all phenomena, all 
secondary causes being subsidiary to these. a 

The train of argument by which Plato establishes his 
physical theory is as follows. The universe is sensible, 
therefore it cannot be eternal, but must have had a 
beginning. Its production must, therefore, be owing to 
some cause, and as he always referred the origin of all 
things to an intelligent First Cause, he arrived at the 
idea that God was the creator of the universe, which, 
like the rest of the Greeks, he denominated %o<r(jb6g 9 that 
is, the visible representative of order. God being the 
supreme good made the world in the likeness of his 
own perfection — he endowed it with a living soul, and 
therefore constituted it a living and rational being. 
As it is the perfection of the beautiful, its form is the 
most symmetrical, that of the sphere; b its motion is 
also perfect, having its cause residing in itself : it is 
uniform, circular, and without error. 

This soul of the world he held to be diffused 
through all bodily forms, and from it all other souls 
originate and are sustained. The corporeal is subject 
to perpetual change, and may take the forms of the 
four elements ; and these he illustrates by the analogy 
of geometrical figures. Fire he compares to the 

* Tim. p. 46. b Ibid. 34. 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 249 

pyramid, air to the octahedron, water to the icosa- 
hedron, earth to the cube, and the universe, which 
unites them all in itself, to the dodecahedron. It 
would be unprofitable to trace his system any further 
through all its groundless and mystical assumptions, 
as he evidently does not scruple to give mythical 
descriptions of those difficulties which inductive science 
had not yet fathomed, and to embody in his philoso- 
phy the dreamy conceptions of his own imagina- 
tion. 

There is one more important part of the physics, 
or rather the physiology or metaphysics, of Plato, 
and that is his theory respecting the human soul, 
and its eternal destiny hereafter. 

Little progress had as yet been made by the phi- 
losophers, his predecessors, towards even a vague and 
indefinite conception of that life and immortality, 
which were only brought to light by the Gospel. 
Hence we are struck with admiration at the hope, 
the conviction, almost amounting to certainty, which 
appears instinctively to have been impressed upon 
the mind of Plato, even whilst the arguments by which 
he attempts to prove his opinions, are inconclusive 
and unsatisfactory. 

Thales, the founder of the dynamical physics, had 
held that the principle of life was a spontaneous 
development ; that the soul, in which it resided, had 
in itself an inherent motive force, and therefore was 
eternal. 3 

a Arist. de An. i. 2. 



250 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

On the authority of Cicero, a we learn that Phere- 
cydes was the earliest whose teaching on this point 
was committed to writing. 

Pythagoras taught that, by successive transmigra- 
tions, the soul is purified from the defilements of the 
body, so as to be fit to return to, and be absorbed 
in, the infinite purity of the Divine mind. 

So far as there is an opportunity of forming an 
opinion, the views of Socrates were identical with 
those of Plato, although perhaps imperfectly deve- 
loped. 

We will first examine Plato's doctrine respecting 
the nature of the human soul, and next the arguments 
on which he grounds his belief in its immortality. 

The nature of the human soul is the same as that 
of the soul of the universe ; but as, until death sepa- 
rates them, the human soul is connected with a mortal 
body it stands in a relation to the sensible or perish- 
able, as well as to the ideal or eternal. So far as 
it is related to the sensible, it participates in the 
changeable and transitory properties of the sensible ; 
hence, in the soul, there is a mortal as well as an 
immortal element ; b the one is divine and the seat 
of the reason, the other the seat of the passions. 
But when subordinate to the Divine reason, keeping 
the passions in check, delighting in pure aspirations, 
striving after the real and the beautiful, it is the 
link between the Divine and human nature, both of 
which are combined in man. 

a Tusc. Dis. i. 16. b Tim. p. 70. 



NATURE OF THE SOUL. 251 

This link between the Divine and the human, the 
ideal and the sensible, has two antagonist tendencies. 
That which is in the direction of the Divine is re- 
presented by Svfjuog, which, though untranslatable, im- 
plies spirit, heart, zeal, courage, love, hope, earnest- 
ness, — in a word, what we understand by the term 
emotions. The tendency towards the objects of sense 
is represented by WiOvplu, appetite, or concupiscence, 
which is capable of control and of right direction. 
The soul, therefore, may be considered as a state in 
which the reason or Divine soul is the governing 
power, and the Svpog and sTiOvplu, the subordinate 
members.* When, therefore, the reason does not 
demand more than its right, or the other parts refuse 
their due obedience, that constitutional state results 
which, according to Plato, constitutes virtue. 

Immortality is the property of the reasonable soul 
alone, and the following are the principal Platonic 
statements and arguments which refer to this great 
doctrine. Most of these will be found in the " Phse- 
don," a dialogue which has for its principal subject- 
matter the proof of this doctrine. 

l. b Whatever comes into existence proceeds from 
its contrary, and as from life comes death, so from 
death comes life. Therefore the phenomenon which 
we call death is the passing into life, and our souls 
exist in the unseen world ('Aiiqg). 

2. c It is an invariable law of Nature that nothing; 

a De Rep. iv. p. 436. 



Phsedo, xv., xvi. c Ibid, xxiii. 



252 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

perishes ; if, therefore, the soul existed previous to 
its union with the body, it necessarily follows that 
it is immortal. 

3. a Nothing can be dissolved or dissipated, unless 
it be compounded, for dissolution is a return into 
original elements. Now the soul is simple, uncom- 
pounded, not cognizable by the senses, and therefore 
not capable of dissolution, but endued with properties 
of existence independent of the body. 

4. b It is not, as has been held by some, a mere 
harmonious adjustment of the parts of the body which 
is destroyed when those parts decay ; for harmony can- 
not co-exist with discord, and the soul, when deranged 
by vice, presents an appearance of discord rather than 
of harmony. 

5. c All knowledge is the recollection of truth which 
was revealed to us in a former state of being, for 
there is nothing real but the idea, to which we cannot 
attain in this life ; as, therefore, the soul has lived 
before, so it will again, after it is set free from the 
body. 

6. d The number of immortal beings is a constant 
quantity ; if the living died and remained in that state, 
a universal death would absorb all Nature. 

7. e The body is the great cause of error, and ex- 
perience proves that the more we can abstract our- 
selves from the influence of it, the more free and 

a Phaedo, xxiv. — xxxiv. b Ibid. xlii. 

c Ibid, xvii. — xxii. d De Rep. x. p. 611. 

e Phaedo, viii. — xii. 



THE PH^EDON AND SYMPOSIUM COMPARED. 253 

powerful are the energies of the soul. This approxi- 
mation, therefore, or tendency towards a perfect state, 
proves that the natural state of the soul, that in 
which it is best fitted for intellectual energy, is one 
of independence of the body. a From this argument, 
especially, is deduced the great practical object of 
the " Phaedon," — to enforce the duty of fitting the 
soul by contemplation, by abstracting it from the 
weaknesses and impediments of the body, by causing 
it to soar even now into the regions of pure thought 
as a preparation for its eternal destiny. 

In the " Symposium," Plato, by the introduction of 
the principle of love, that is, the admiration of the 
good through the medium of the beautiful, endeavours 
to unite the immortal to the mortal, to give a sensuous 
character to spiritual things. Although the superi- 
ority of philosophical contemplation, as a point of 
duty and a source of happiness, is never lost sight of, 
still the enjoyment of life, the enlisting of the sympa- 
thies in favour of all that is cheering and beautiful, 
is brought prominently forward in this dialogue. It 
is an endeavour to show how a being, destined for 
immortality, can delight in the pleasures of this mortal 
existence. In the " Phsedon,' 1 on the other hand, the 
great practical end of the philosopher is, to make us 
lovers of wisdom (<pihoao<poi), not lovers of the body 
(fyChoaooyjUTOi). To wrest the mind away from the body 
and the things of the body ; to make man act the 
immortal (c&TrocdavccTi^siv) as far as possible ; to detach 

a Phaedo, lvii. — lxii. 



254 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the immortal from the mortal, and thus to prepare for 
the joys of that heavenly region where the occupa- 
tions of the soul will be pure and spiritual. 

It follows, from this view of his teaching respecting 
the soul, that, to Plato, death is a subject, not of 
dread, but of hope; not of gloomy, but of cheerful, 
contemplation. He looks upon it as an event on 
which the mind can dwell without interruption to the 
duties of life, even as Socrates, in his last moments, 
could use the poisoned cup to perform the social and 
religious rites of his last social meal. 

The lesson which the philosopher teaches, is to 
aim at the true and the eternal ; to soar to the 
regions of archetypal forms, where truth alone dwells. 
He strives to infuse, not only a tranquil and resigned 
spirit at the approach of death, but an actual wish and 
desire for death, as the condition of attaining immor- 
tality. He labours to inculcate a temper similar to 
that which dictated the words of St. Paul, " My desire 
is to depart and to be with Christ." Upon the whole, 
the arguments which have been stated are in reality 
only supports and aids to the great ground-work on 
which evidently rests Plato's internal conviction of 
the soul's immortality. It is this, that, if knowledge 
is real ; if there is nothing real but the ideal forms ; if 
the soul has the power of attaining and conceiving this, 
of which our consciousness furnishes unanswerable 
evidence, the soul must have existed, and. therefore 
be capable of existing, independent of the body. And 
hence the practical lesson — that philosophy implies 



POETICAL EMBELLISHMENTS. 255 

to wish for knowledge, to wish to exist in the disem- 
bodied state, in fact to wish to die. 

Throughout the whole of Plato's system may be 
traced this inseparable connexion between knowledge 
and immortality. The subjects are investigated side 
by side, and the theory of the one is brought to per- 
fection simultaneously with that of the other. Hence 
the result produced upon the mind, by the study of 
Plato's works, is a firm conviction that he was a be- 
liever in immortality ; and although some of his 
arguments are inconclusive, the reader is insensibly 
led to admit the probability at least of his conclusions. 

Cato was persuaded by him that, after death, he 
should dwell with the immortal gods; and Cicero 
exclaims, " Mallem cum Platone errare quam cum istis 
vera sentire." 

These philosophical theories respecting the condi- 
tion of the soul after death, are embellished by 
mythical representations, and adorned with all the 
skill of the artist and poet. Beautiful but fanciful de- 
scriptions of the unseen world give an inexpressible 
charm to the "Phsedon," the most artistic and poetical 
of all the Platonic dialogues. To the genius of the 
poet, rather than to the thoughtfulness of the philo- 
sopher, must be attributed his theory that the sensual 
man will, as a restless ghost, visible to mortal eyes, 
because of the bodily impurities still clinging to and 
defiling the transparent invisible spirit, haunt his 
grave, longing to rejoin the body which he loved, 
with all its propensities and passions. The same 



256 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

luxuriant fancy adopted the doctrine of transmigra- 
tion, which has taken so universal a hold upon the 
human mind, as not only to have been believed by 
Pythagoras and Plato, but by the Egyptians a and the 
Druids' in ancient times, and to be received by the 
Brahmans, Buddhists, and Chinese in the present day. 
Lastly, Plato evidently taught that a future state 
would be one of reward and punishment, of com- 
munion or even union with God, and with the spirits 
of the illustrious dead, to him who is really a philo- 
sopher, and who has emancipated himself from the 
fetters of the body. The scene of this happiness he 
poetically lays in the regions of some kindred star. 
To attain this end he believed to be in the power of 
all. Man is free to choose the good and the evil. 
God is the author of nothing but good ; evil is the 
result of constitution of body and of education;* 1 and 
although his views are sometimes inconsistent, as has 
been the case with all investigations into the origin of 
evil, he holds that, if man chooses the evil instead of 
the good, he is alone to blame (0soc Muiriog), God is 
not responsible.* 

a Herod, ii. 123. b Cses. Bell. Gall. vi. 14. 

c Tim. p. 42. d Ibid. 86. e DeRep. x. p. 617. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE SUBORDINATE TO ETHICAL. 257 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

PHYSICAL SCIENCE SUBORDINATE TO ETHICAL. THREEFOLD DIVISION 

OF ETHICS. RELATION OF "THE GOOD " TO PLEASURE. APPARENT 

INCONSISTENCIES IN PLATO'S ETHICAL SYSTEM. SPECIAL GOODS 

VIRTUE. ITS FOURFOLD DIVISION. — JUSTICE. — CONNEXION OF 

ETHICS AND POLITICS. SACRIFICE OF PRIVATE RIGHTS TO PUBLIC 

GOOD. ANALOGY OF THE STATE TO THE INDIVIDUAL. MIXED 

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT BEST. VIEWS OF THE REPUBLIC MODIFIED 

IN THE LAWS. EDUCATION. MUSIC AND POETRY. THE PLATONIC 

NUMBER. — THE CRATYLUS. THE SUCCESSORS OF PLATO. 

ETHICS. 

There are few points in which Plato more closely 
resembled his great master, Socrates, than in the high 
importance which he attributed to ethical studies, and 
their cognate subject, political science. Not only did 
he make physical science subordinate to it, but sub- 
servient. The phenomena of Nature appeared to him 
to have some great moral end in view. The final 
cause of each was the good and the beautiful. All 
things in Nature were so constituted as to promote 
virtue and discourage vice, and to set forth the Deity 
as the moral Governor of the universe. 3 

The constitution of man is such that he is capable 
of working out the designs of God ; but as his will is 

a De Leg. x. 904. 
VOL. II. S 



258 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

free, and reason is his guide, it is in his power to fulfil 
or not the object of his being. Whilst he thus con- 
nected ethics with physics, especially with that portion 
of it which developed the psychological nature of man, 
he made moral science also dependent upon dialectics, 
in that virtue is science, and science is conversant 
with the idea, or archetypal form, which alone was 
the supreme good. Hence ethics imply three subjects 
of investigation : — I. The good. II. Virtue. III. The 
state. 1st, Because man must be considered not 
merely in his individual capacity, but as the member 
of a social community. 2nd, Because he considers 
the harmony which subsists between the members of 
a well-regulated state, as a type and representation of 
virtue in an individual. 

I. In the investigation of the supreme good, it 
was necessary, by way of introduction, to do away 
with the false notions which existed previously re- 
specting it in such great variety. The most popular 
of these was, as might naturally be expected, that 
which considered " the good " as identical with 
pleasure. This doctrine had been taught by Demo- 
critus, and by those popular rhetorical teachers of 
morality, the sophists; and refutations of it, and 
discussions respecting the true nature of pleasure 
and pain, and the distinction to be drawn between 
true and false pleasures, are to be found scattered 
throughout all the dialogues, especially the " Prota- 
goras," the " Gorgias," and the " Philebus." In these 
two latter dialogues the subject is continuously 



PLATO'S IDEA OF "THE GOOD." 259 

treated, for it is commenced in the " Gorgias," and 
completed in the " Philebus." A lively and amusing 
discussion of the subject, in opposition partly to the 
views of the cynics, will also be found in the " Phae- 
don," illustrated with all the dramatic liveliness which 
characterizes that dialogue. 

It must not be supposed that Plato, in denying 
that the highest good consisted in pleasure, taught 
that pleasure was not a good. The classification 
which he made of true and false, pure and impure, 
pleasures, a shows that some were to be wished for 
and enjoyed. The impure pleasures were those which 
arose from the satisfaction of debasing passions, and 
these were invariably accompanied with some admix- 
ture of pain. From the pure pleasures, although the 
highest were those derived from the exercise and 
satisfaction of the intellect, he did not entirely ex- 
clude even some pleasures connected with sense, such 
as, for instance, those of hearing and smell and 
sight. 

It must not be forgotten that, according to Plato, 
pleasure was not the good, but was to be pursued 
for the sake of the good. b Many inconsistencies may 
doubtless be observed in Plato's treatment of this 
subject, but they are practical rather than theoretical 
inconsistencies. In theory he was impressed with a 
firm conviction that man's aim, in his aspirations after 
the good and beautiful, was to separate his intellectual 
from his carnal nature. This, practically, he found 

a Phileb. p. 50. b Gorg. 506. 

s2 



260 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

to be impossible. His substitute, therefore, for the 
attainment of this unattainable standard of perfection 
was the harmonizing of the superior with the inferior 
parts of his psychical constitution in their purest and 
truest developments. Hence the philosopher descends 
for a time from the regions of pure thought to con- 
template the absolute needs and wants of man's 
compound nature, and, as a means to an end, enlists 
pleasure on the side of virtue, and teaches that, by 
the purification of our desires, we may approach 
nearer to that resemblance to Deity which we cannot 
absolutely attain. 

It is only by such considerations as these that we 
can attempt to reconcile the oneness of the good, as 
viewed in one aspect, with its manifold nature when 
considered in relation to the phenomena of practical 
life. The idea of the good is absolute, perfect, in- 
capable of degree ; the phenomenal goods are only 
resemblances of the ideal, and therefore some are 
nearer, some farther off, from the standard of per- 
fection. 51 Hence, he arranges special goods, which are 
but the likenesses and antitypes to the archetypal 
form or idea, in a regular series of classes or grada- 
tions — each inferior to the one preceding — com- 
mencing with the standard of proportion which 
measures the fitness of things, and all relative duties ; 
and ending, although he shrinks from mentioning it, 
with that pleasure mingled with pain from which 
the embodied soul cannot be entirely emancipated. 5 
a Phileb. 66, a. b Bitter, viii. 5. 



HIS THEORY OF VIRTUE. 261 

JI. This theory of the good leads to the subject 
which immediately arises out of it, that is — virtue. 
Virtue, then, is essentially one, and is identical with 
the science of the highest good. But the difficulty 
of maintaining this theoretical view, when he comes 
to apply it to the particulars of human conduct, 
causes Plato frequently to lose sight of its scientific 
character. His language, therefore, is vague, incon- 
sistent, and contradictory. Impressed, doubtless, with 
the true doctrine that the moral value of an act is 
determined by the principle from which it proceeds, 
he held that no single virtue apart from the rest 
is truly virtuous, and that he who possesses one virtue 
possesses all. He is not always consistent in the term 
which he applies to this universal virtue : at one time 
it is Justice ; a at another Prudence ; b at another 
Temperance. The only mode in which his notion 
of the ideal unity of virtue is to be reconciled with 
his view of its manifold nature, is by the hypothesis 
that the several divisions of virtue were different 
phases of it. The division of virtue which he usually 
adopts is fourfold. Prudence (tygovriGig), the virtue of 
the intellect ; courage (avlgeiu), that of the emotions ; 
temperance (aatygoavvii), of the sensuous ; and that virtue 
which regulates the parts of the soul according to their 
due harmony and proportion, justice (biKuiocvvri). To 
these he sometimes adds piety (ocwrrig), but only 
when he is treating ethical questions popularly, and 
not as a formal part of his ethical system. 

a Gorg. 504. b Ph»d. 68. ' Gorg. 504. 



262 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

It is clear, however, that justice, taken in the 
Platonic sense — that is, not as a relative duty, but as 
a well-balanced and harmoniously organized condition 
of the soul — stands highest in his list of virtues. 
As it governs, arranges, and places in order man's 
moral nature, the result of it is necessarily all the 
other virtues : a without it their existence is impos- 
sible; it is the bond of union which holds them 
together ; it is the central point, in which meet all 
elements of moral culture. When it exists, every 
part of the soul performs its proper office, without 
invading the rightful province of the other. 

III. Justice, moreover, constitutes the connecting 
link between ethics and politics. Not only is the ana- 
logy perfect between the relative duties of the members 
of a state to one another, and the harmonious inter- 
communion of the parts of the soul ; but also the view 
taken of man is incomplete and inadequate, unless 
he is contemplated in his social as well as his indi- 
vidual capacity. A well-governed state resembles 
the inward constitution of a virtuous man, b and so 
dependent is man on the organization of the state 
of which he is a member, that neither his moral nor 
his intellectual nature can be perfectly developed, 
except under favourable political circumstances. The 
pressing this* analogy too far led to that state of 
things which he describes in his imaginary "Republic ;" 
a state not only unattainable, but by no means tend- 
ing, as he supposed, to the happiness of man. Social 
a De Rep. iv. 443. b Ibid. ii. 368. c Ibid. vi. 496. 



HIS POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 263 

harmony, mutual dependence of one member upon 
another, and upon the whole body politic, for happi- 
ness and prosperity ; the idea that all are so intimately 
bound up and connected with one another, that when 
one member suffers, all the members suffer with it ; 
the surrender of individual free will for the general 
advantage are, to a certain extent, correct principles 
in politics ; but Plato argues from these principles as 
though their logical results were the worst species of 
communism. 

However extravagant it doubtless is, Plato's ima- 
ginary " Republic" would not have appeared so unna- 
tural to Greeks as it does to us. We look upon the 
great object of civil government as protection to life 
and property; we interfere as little as possible with 
the free will, especially with the domestic life of 
the individual. The respect we pay to it prevents us 
from interfering in the great question of education, 
as involving the sacred rights of a parent over his 
child. The Greeks were accustomed to the notion 
of merging- the individual in the state, of sacrificing 
personal freedom to the greatness of the political 
community. This principle is embodied more espe- 
cially in the Spartan code ; it is the pervading feature 
of Dorian political institutions, which Plato greatly 
admired, and in accordance with which he framed 
his own political theories. 

How much more healthy are the judicious senti- 
ments of Thucydides, respecting the personal inde- 
pendence and absence of jealous and inquisitive con- 



264 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

trol over private life, which characterised the Athe- 
nian, as compared with the Spartan constitution, 
than the extravagant tyranny of that model-state 
which Plato describes as too perfect to be found on 
earth ; as the ideal of perfection, to which we ought 
to approach as nearly as possible? 

A modern communist 3 has endeavoured to show 
that the logical consequence of a community of goods 
is a community of women. The " Republic" of Plato 
recognised this. The rights of property were abo- 
lished, or allowed only to the lowest classes, as if 
it were a degrading privilege; the charities of domestic 
life were snapped asunder ; the education of children 
was taken into the hands of the state. Property, 
children, and women, were held to be common. So 
far was the happiness of the individual lost sight of 
in the supposed welfare of the community, that the 
barbarous practice, which was common in Greece, 
of exposing weakly infants, was recommended and 
approved, 15 and attention to the sick denied, as useless 
to the community. 

The three orders of the state corresponded to the 
three parts of the individual soul. The governor 
answered to the intellect; the warrior class to the 
emotions ; the working classes to the sensuous, who, 
like it, were to be kept in entire control, whilst the 
warriors were to assist the governor in his task. This 
analogy was carried even further. Each rank assisted 

a See Edinb. Rev. 1850. 
b De Rep. v. 459. c Ibid. iii. 405. 



FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 265 

in determining the moral quality of the body politic. 
Its prudence was due to the ruling class, its courage 
to the military, its temperance to the craftsman, and 
its justice to the proper adaptation and harmonious 
mixture of all the other virtues combined. 

The growing evil of unpatriotic selfishness, which, 
in the disjointed times of Plato, was gnawing at the 
root of civil liberty, probably led him to rate so highly 
the importance of sacrificing the individual to the state ; 
and the fact that the one and only object which he 
recognised in politics, was to make men happier by 
making them morally better, accounts for the position 
which he assigns to education amongst the duties of a 
state. 

The unity of object and purpose, as well as the 
rarity of such endowments, as qualify for supreme 
power, led Plato theoretically to determine that the 
best constitution is an absolute monarchy ; but, as in 
other cases, this theory is modified; and he practi- 
cally allows that the best forms of government are 
mixed forms, such as those of Crete and Sparta, in 
which the monarchical and free principles are com- 
bined^ 

This modification, however, is found in his treatise 
on the "Laws," and not in that in which he definitely 
lays down the principles of his model " Republic." He 
felt that the relation which the whole of his system 
presupposes between the ideal and the sensible, held 
good in this case also, and, therefore, whilst in his 

a De Leg. 



266 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ideal sketch lie gave full scope to his imagination, 
in his more practical treatise, he showed how near 
an approximation might safely be made to his prin- 
ciples, and substituted for the absolute will of the 
monarch, the safer rule of the supreme majesty of 
law. 

The influence of the state upon the individual 
member was developed by education, which was, in 
fact, its great work and duty. A national system of 
education was to be established ; designed, by moral 
training, to give the youthful members of the com- 
munity right notions on the subject of pleasure and 
pain. a Simultaneously the body was to be trained 
by gymnastics, and the mind by music, which terms 
included all the elements of a liberal education. 
These two branches, besides the positive effect which 
they would produce, he imagined would reciprocally 
counteract each other's defects. A liberal education 
would correct the rudeness arising from the simple 
cultivation of the bodily powers, whilst bodily exercise 
would prevent a highly cultivated taste from dege- 
nerating into effeminacy. He appears to have had 
a dread of the enervating effect of excessive aesthetic 
refinement, a fear that taste might lead to selfish 
luxury, and thus corrupt the severe simplicity of an- 
cient morals. For this reason he recommended re- 
strictive enactments on music and the fine arts ; for 
this reason, although himself endowed with the ima- 
gination of a poet, he banished from his model " Re- 
a De Leg. ii. 



HIS THEORY OF NUMBER. 267 

public " epic and dramatic poetry ; a even lyric poetry 
he only considered admissible if confined to high and 
ennobling subjects, — the glory and praises of gods and 
heroes. 

Such then is a brief sketch of the Platonic philo- 
sophy : many defects doubtless there are in it, glimpses 
of heavenly truth obscured by mythical extravagancies ; 
conceptions clear probably to his own mind, con- 
veyed to his hearers and readers in vague and mys- 
tical language. But, nevertheless, his pure and holy 
mind, aspiring to something beyond the regions of 
sense, yearning after that truth and knowledge of 
which God was the perfect representative, strenuously 
combating all low and selfish views, and looking on 
life as a continual preparation for immortality, is 
worthy a disciple of the great Socrates. 

As Plato's theory of number is so intimately con- 
nected with his political system, and as the fullest 
description and explanation which he gives of it is 
contained in the " Republic," b a few observations re- 
specting it will not be out of place here. Any 
attempt, however, to arrive at an accurate compre- 
hension of a subject, which Cicero pronounced pro- 
verbially obscure, would be hopeless. Plato evidently 
entertained two separate and distinct ideas on this 
subject: 1. That numbers possessed in themselves 
certain mysterious properties. 2. That just as musi- 
cal harmonies are produced by exact divisions of a 

a De Rep. iii. 398 ; De Leg. vii. 810. 
b De Rep. p. 54:6. c Ep. ad Att. vii. 13. 



268 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

string, and may therefore be represented by numbers, 
so moral conditions and social relations, being harmo- 
nies, may be represented in the same manner. The first 
of these views, being entirely groundless and vision- 
ary, gave rise to formulae, which were entirely arbi- 
trary ; the second has some appearance of probability, 
but is equally useless and inconclusive, when applied 
to the purposes of argument or illustration. 

The following examples a will be sufficient to exhi- 
bit the manner in which number is used in the 
Platonic philosophy. The product of the first four 
numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, multiplied together, was called the 
tetractys, and was supposed to involve a symbolic 
mystery, and hence it was assumed that its square, 
10| 2 = 100, represented the average duration of human 
life, and its cube, 10| 3 = 1000, the duration of a poli- 
tical community. 

For no better reason, Plato decided that the proper 
number of citizens to constitute a state was neither 
more nor less than 5040, which is equal to the con- 
tinued product of the first seven numbers ; for 1 x 2 x 
3x4x5x6x 7=5040. Lastly, he calculated that 
the ratio of the unhappiness of a constitutional ruler 
to that of a tyrant is represented by ^ ; for an aris- 
tocracy in its purest form, i.e., a perfect state, is 
third in order from an oligarchy, and an oligarchy 
third from a tyranny ; therefore, their relative positions 
will be represented by the numbers 1, 3, 9, and their 
relative unhappiness by the cubes, or by 1, and 729. 
a See Trans, of Philolog. Soc. 



SUBJECT OF THE CRATYLUS. 269 



THE CRATYLUS. 



The " Cratylus," has been a source of difficulty to 
all those who have endeavoured to understand the 
mind of Plato. a It stands apart, as it were, from the 
rest of the dialogues, and is the only work which pro- 
fesses to treat of a subject which the sophistical 
philosophy had rendered so important, namely, the 
nature of language ; and it is not clear what Plato's 
own theory respecting the philosophy of language was, 
or what relation it bears to the rest of his system. 
Nor is it easy to separate jest from earnest, and 
determine where he is treating the subject as a 
matter of serious investigation, and where his plays 
upon words are merely an amusing and even sophis- 
tical discussion. The principal subject of the dialogue 
is evidently the relation of language to knowledge, 
and as an important part of this subject, the reader 
is cautioned against the prevailing popular error that 
language of itself is sufficient to conduct to real know- 
ledge, and that terms have such power to define and 
limit ideas as to exclude all possibility of doubt and 
error. 

The principal speaker, after whom the dialogue is 
named, is Cratylus, a philosopher who followed the 
system of Heraclitus, which taught that the etymo- 
logy of terms involves the knowledge of the things 
represented by them. An intimate relation also sub- 
sisted between the Heraclitic and stoic philosophy, 

a Vide Biog. Laert. iii. ; Schleierm. Introd. j Stalb. de Cra. PI. 



270 



GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



and the latter school attributed great importance to 
grammatical investigation ; the introduction, there- 
fore, of the name of Cratylus, as a supporter of one oi 
the opposing views, is very appropriate. The theory 
which he maintains is, that names are given to things 
according to certain natural laws and in conformity 
with their natural properties.- This view is illustrated 
by examples of proper names, both of men and deities, 
by the names of the heavenly bodies, the elements, 
the virtues, and so forth; but in these illustrations 
jest evidently predominates over seriousness. Accord- 
ing to this view of the nature of language, it would, 
in the process of formation, follow a necessary law, and 
words, like the objects of sense for which they stand, 
would be the imitations of archetypal ideas. Words, 
therefore, to a certain extent, do define the nature oi 
things ; they represent the effect produced upon the 
senses, but do not convey such accurate notions as the 
contemplations of pure intellect. It follows from this 
theory of language, that verbal arguments may some- 
times be sound and logical. This view, supported by 
the imaginary Cratylus, is so much in accordance witl 
the Platonic system that it was most probably the 
opinion of the philosopher himself. 

Hermogenes, who had instructed Plato in the Elea- 
tic doctrines, as Cratylus had been his teacher in th( 
system of Heraclitus, is made to maintain the opposite 
view — that language is a conventional instrument, 
arbitrarily invented, accidentally developed ; that 
there is no natural (<j>vasi) correspondence or con- 



SUCCESSORS OF PLATO. 271 

nexion between words and things, but that the adap- 
tation of the one to the other only takes place by 
mutual consent and arrangement. 

The above is necessarily but an imperfect sketch of 
a few features of that great and comprehensive mind, 
which fearlessly attacked every subject of human 
contemplation, which analysed all preceding philo- 
sophy, and left so rich a legacy to posterity, that the 
deepest thinkers of every age and nation have chosen 
him for their master and their guide. Owing to his 
unwearied intellectual energies, philosophy was now 
firmly established in its home at Athens, and the 
Academy and Garden, the scene of his labours, de- 
scended in regular order to his successors, who, as far 
as their abilities enabled them, taught in this school 
the Platonic doctrines. Inferior as the Academics 
were to their great master, they were sometimes in- 
capable of comprehending his doctrines, and hence, 
sometimes wilfully, sometimes undesignedly, they mis- 
represented and modified them. 

Speusippus, a the nephew and immediate successor of 
Plato, a wise and good man, but not a distinguished 
philosopher, left a collection of posthumous works 
which were purchased by Aristotle for about three 
talents (£720). He was succeeded after an interval of 
six years by Xenocrates, b a native of Chalcedon. He 
was an industrious and indefatigable student rather 
than a profound or original thinker. He died at the 
age of eighty-two, B.C. 314, and during twenty-five 
a B.o. 348. b b.c. 342. c Cic. Acad. i. 4. 



272 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

years of his long life he filled the chair of Plato in the 
Academy. His works were voluminous, but nothing 
remains of them but their titles. Either the prin- 
ciples of his philosophy were in themselves ill-defined, 
or the authors, in whose works notices of them occur, 
failed of apprehending them, and therefore have not 
conveyed clear conceptions of their purport and cha- 
racter. But too little is handed down respecting him 
to render any further mention of him necessary in a 
history of Greek classical literature 

The other academics, Polemo, Crates, and Crantor, 
contributed nothing of importance or value to the 
advance and progress of philosophical investigation. 



ARISTOTLE THE DISCIPLE OF PLATO. 273 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Aristotle, born b.c. 384. 

ARISTOTLE. THE UNCERTAINTY OF HIS BIOGRAPHY. HIS BIRTH- 
PLACE AND PARENTAGE. VISITS ATHENS. BECOMES A PUPIL OF 

PLATO. HIS ATTACHMENT TO HIS TUTOR. HIS EMBASSY TO THE 

COURT OF PHILIP. CONTROVERSY WITH ISOCRATES. BECOMES TUTOR 

TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. COURSE OF EDUCATION ADOPTED. 

RETURNS TO ATHENS. LECTURES IN THE LYCEUM. HIS MANNER 

OF TEACHING. FALSE CHARGE OF POISONING ALEXANDER. HIS 

VOLUMINOUS WORKS. MUNIFICENCE OF ALEXANDER. PERSECUTION 

OF ARISTOTLE. FLIES TO CHALCIS. HIS DEATH. APPOINTMENT 

OF A SUCCESSOR. HIS APPEARANCE. HIS STYLE CONTRASTED WITH 

THAT OF PLATO. HIS STYLE INFLUENCED BY THE AGE IN WHICH 

HE LIVED. HIS DEFERENCE FOR AUTHORITY. THE PRACTICAL 

CHARACTER OF HIS MIND. HIS VIEWS LIMITED TO THIS LIFE. 

DTV1SION OF HIS WORKS. MEANING OF ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC. 

HIS HABIT OF INDUCTION. DEFECT IN HIS ETHICS. HIS PHI- 
LOSOPHY CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF PLATO. 

Whilst, in the academy which Plato founded, philo- 
sophy was falling into decay, his most distinguished 
disciple was developing its resources, and extending 
its frontiers with all the manly vigour of a systematic 
and practical mind. 

The biographies of the eminent philosophers and 
literary men of antiquity are generally scanty. Their 
tranquil lives are not fertile in those stirring events 

VOL. II. T 



274 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

which occupy a place in history. Their works are at 
once the exploits, picture, and history of their lives, 
and through them they live in the thoughts and affec- 
tions of posterity. Of the life of Aristotle, on the 
other hand, a great many particulars are stated, but, 
nevertheless, it is difficult to determine which of them 
is trustworthy. The accounts given of him not only 
abound in discrepancies, but these discrepancies are 
contradictory and inconsistent with each other. a If 
some are true the others must be absolutely false. 

The Greek colony Stagira, in Chalcidice, had the 
honour of giving birth to this great philosopher, and 
the epithet by which he is so generally known. He 
was born 01. xci. 1. His father, Nicomachus, was 
court physician to Amyntas II., King of Macedon, 
and the author of works on medicine and natural phi- 
losophy. b The tastes of the father for these subjects 
probably tended to form that of the son. In early 
boyhood he was introduced at court by his father, and 
thus made that acquaintance with Philip which exer- 
cised so great an influence over his subsequent life. 
At seventeen years of age he was left an orphan, and 
his guardian, Proxenus, a native of Atarneus, residing at 
Stagira, procured him the benefits of a good education. 
An ample fortune enabled him, in order to prosecute 
his philosophical studies, to visit Athens, which was 
now the school of Greece and the capital of learning 
and philosophy, a position to which it aspired even in 

a Suidas, s. v. ; Aristotle ; and Nicomachus ; Diog. Laert. v. 
b Pol. iii. 6, 8 ; vii. 2, 8. 



ARISTOTLE A PUPIL OF PLATO. 275 

the time of Thucydides. 3 The other account, which 
states that, during this period, he squandered his patri- 
mony, then became a soldier, and afterwards a seller 
of drugs, has been satisfactorily refuted. 

The absence of Plato in Sicily when Aristotle arrived 
at Athens gave him an opportunity of laying the foun- 
dation for that superstructure which Plato afterwards 
raised upon it, and forming those habits of learned 
inquiry and original investigation for which he was 
distinguished. The progress he thus made soon dis- 
tinguished him among his fellow- disciples for his ac- 
quired learning and well trained habits of inquiry, 
as well as for his zeal and energy. This gained for 
him the commendation of Plato, who used to say 
that Xenocrates required the spur, but Aristotle 
the bit. b Later authorities add that he gave him the 
title of " the reader " (avayvuGT'/ig), and the " mind of 
the school " (o vovg rrjq haTg&yjg). The approbation 
which he thus obtained from his instructor is perfectly 
inconsistent with the calumnious statement that he 
was guilty of disrespect and ingratitude. There might 
probably have been occasionally philosophical disputes 
between them, marked by impetuosity on the part of 
the young and zealous aspirer after truth, and pro- 
voking some asperity on the part of his older instruc- 
tor ; and these may have been misunderstood and mis- 
interpreted by those who heard of or saw them. But 
such disputes, even if maintained with warmth, are 
perfectly reconcilable with a good understanding upon 

a Lib. ii. b Diog. Laert. iv. 6. 

t2 



276 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the whole between the disputants. Whatever evi- 
dence exists tends to show marked respect on the 
part of Aristotle towards Plato, even when his regard 
for truth caused him to oppose his views. " When," 
he says, " the question is between truth and our friends 
it is right to prefer truth although both are dear." a 

At the time of Plato's death b Aristotle was absent 
as ambassador from Athens to the court of Philip, 
after which he left Athens for some time. He 
had no ties of a private nature to detain him there 
any longer. The ambitious and aggressive policy of 
Philip, which now began to develope itself, would per- 
haps expose one who was on terms of friendly inti- 
macy with the Macedonian monarch to political 
jealousy and personal danger. His own predilections 
were rather in favour of the protection afforded by a 
monarchy than the tyranny of a multitude. Moreover, 
his ardent curiosity and love of observation would 
induce him, even more than any other philosopher, 
to increase the sphere of his knowledge by foreign 
travel, for which his present position in Athens, both 
public and private, furnished a favourable opportunity. 
Before leaving Athens he had a bitter controversy 
with Isocrates, the most superficial, but, nevertheless, 
the most popular rhetorician of his day. Isocrates 
was the representative of that florid style of oratory 
which depended for its effect more on ornament and 
style ( Xe%ig ), than on argumentative proof ( Turrig ). 
To this false theory the calm and vigorous intellect 
a Nic. Eth. i. 6 ; see also ix. 7. b b.c. 347. 



TUTOR TO ALEXANDER. 277 

of Aristotle was diametrically opposed, as may be seen 
from his " Rhetoric," which was probably written at 
this period." 

In B.C. 342, Aristotle, at the request of Philip, 
became tutor to Alexander, then thirteen years of 
age. The influence of A/istotle over Philip, 5 led to 
the rebuilding of his native town, which had fallen in 
his attack upon the Greek colonies of Thrace. There 
Philip built for him a grove and school called the 
Nymphseum, and thither he retired to superintend the 
education of his distinguished pupil. The branches 
of education in which he instructed him were poetry, 
oratory, and philosophy, as well natural as moral and 
political. With a view to the first, c he is said to have 
prepared a revised copy of the %< Iliad," and Strabo d 
asserts that some of the emendations are by the hand of 
Alexander himself. The influence of Aristotle's teach- 
ing on the mind of the future conqueror of the world 
is displayed in that noble generosity, merciful huma- 
nity, and strict love of justice, which are the distin- 
guishing features of his moral character. 

In three years Alexander left his tutor, in order to 
become regent during his fathers absence, but he still 
kept up a constant communication with him ; and in 
B.C. 335, shortly after his accession, Aristotle returned 
to Athens. There is no authority for the story of his 
having accompanied Alexander on his Indian expedition. 

On his arrival at Athens he found Xenocrates teach- 

a Rhet. i. 1. b Plut. v. ; Alex. vii. 

c Wolf, Proleg. 183 d Strabo, xiii. 591 



278 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ing in the academy, and the cynics in the Cynosarges. 
The state, therefore, assigned to him the Lyceum, in 
the walks of which (o/Vs^/Varo;) he delivered his lessons 
to a large number of eminent disciples ; and hence his 
school acquired the title of Peripatetic. 

The dialogues of Plato present a lively picture of 
the familiar conversational style in which he delivered 
his instructions. On the other hand, so many of the 
works of Aristotle extant are in the form of notes for 
more expanded lectures, that there can be no doubt of 
his habit being to teach in courses of lectures, de- 
livered orally in regular order. This habit, too, is the 
most in accordance with his orderly and systematic 
mind. 

All authorities coincide in the generally received 
account, that subsequently, when the character of 
Alexander changed so much for the worse, a coolness 
and estrangement took place between him and his 
tutor, although his respect for him continued undi- 
minished. The false charge which implicated Aristotle 
in the improbable crime of poisoning Alexander, is 
founded solely on a misunderstanding of a passage in 
Pliny's " Natural History," 3 and is still further met by 
the belief now universally held, that Alexander died, 
not by poison, but a natural death, hastened by his 
own intemperance. 

Thirteen years did Aristotle pass at Athens, in the 
tranquil activity of a literary life, engaged in the work 
of daily instruction, and in the composition of his 
a Hist. Nat, xxx. 53. 



HIS VOLUMINOUS WORKS. 279 

voluminous works. If the account of Diogenes a is 
correct, the number of lines which he wrote were 
four hundred and forty thousand ; and we can thus 
form some idea of that indefatigable industry, which, 
in so short a space of time, in the midst of the occu- 
pation incident to the life of a public instructor, and, 
notwithstanding the comparatively inconvenient na- 
ture of writing materials, produced no less than thirty 
octavo volumes, the result of original thought and 
laborious investigation. Of these, about one-fourth 
survive. 

In his literary labours, he was munificently assisted 
by his royal pupil, to the amount of eight hundred 
talents (£192,000), a sum which probably was equiva- 
lent to £600,000 in our own days. The collection, 
moreover, of specimens in natural history, which 
Alexander's extensive conquests enabled him to trans- 
mit to Athens, formed the materials for his " History 
of Animals/' the value of which is daily more and more 
appreciated by modern naturalists. 

The open rupture between Greece and Macedon, 
which ensued upon the death of Alexander, 5 menaced 
the safety of one who had been so long connected in 
friendship with that kingdom. But a religious per- 
secution is always far easier than a political accusation, 
against one who had so completely estranged himself 
from public affairs. As in the case of Socrates, his 
ruin was sought by means of a charge of impiety. 
He had written a scolia in praise of his old disciple, 
a Diog. Laert. v. 27. «» b.c. 323. 



280 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Hermeas; and this his accusers pretended was a paean, 
and therefore an act of blasphemy. Fearing the issue 
of a trial, and looking upon the fate of Socrates as a 
warning, he escaped to Chalcis in Euboea. In his 
absence he was condemned to death by the court of 
the Areopagus, and the following year he died, at 
the age of sixty-two, little more than two months 
before Demosthenes. Less trustworthy accounts say 
that he took poison, or drowned himself in the Euripus, 
disappointed at being unable to discover the cause of 
its marvellous currents. 

It is said that, shortly before his death, he appointed 
his successor in the following symbolical manner. 
The choice lay between Theophrastus, a Lesbian, and 
Menedemus, or rather Eudemus, a Rhodian. Calling 
for the wines of these two islands, and tasting them, 
he said that both were good, but that he preferred the 
Lesbian. 

His personal appearance was disagreeable, his fea- 
tures plain, his figure mean ; and these defects he 
endeavoured to remedy by particular attention to 
dress. His countenance wore a sharp and caustic 
expression ; and though he spoke with a lisp, his elo- 
quence was powerful and convincing. His energy 
and perseverance overcame the weakness of his bodily 
frame. His devotion to scientific pursuits was kept 
• in check by a calm and sober spirit, which prevented 
him from running wild in the regions of imagination 
and theory. 

It is impossible to form a correct estimate either of 



ARISTOTLE COMPARED WITH PLATO. 281 

his literary style or his philosophical method, without 
contrasting them with those of Plato. Plato was 
endowed with a highly-poetical imagination ; his great 
object was knowledge ; his delight was speculation. 
Absorbed in the contemplation of the ideal, he forgot 
that world in which he lived and moved. His fervid 
genius imparted a warmth and earnestness to his 
teaching, almost resembling inspiration. Philosophy 
was with Plato that which its name implies, a love, or 
passion, for wisdom. If his arguments were fanciful 
and inconclusive, they still entranced and carried 
away the learner, and demanded from him a faith 
which, although he could not prove, he could not 
refuse. His unrestrained fancy eschewed the form of 
a regular lecture or treatise, and poured forth its 
thoughts in the simple and unsystematic form of con- 
versational dialogue. His style is the purest and 
sweetest Attic, and his illustrative imagery nothing 
less than poetical. Lastly. Plato, though he could 
speculate, could not criticize. He was a consummate 
artist, but not a critic. He could feel beauty, whether 
scientific, moral, or artistic, even though he could not ex- 
plain its nature, or analyze with precision its principles. 
Aristotle, on the other hand, had neither poetry, 
nor imagination, nor fancy in his composition, but 
then his calm inquiring spirit never indulged in 
extravagant speculation. He was eminently a prac- 
tical man ; his great object, as he himself says, was 
not knowledge (yvooaig) but practice (ffgdfyg)* He 
a Nic. Eth. i. 



144 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

could not form a conception of the ideal, he could not 
look inwards as deeply as Plato could, and contem- 
plate the energy of the soul, with the same shrewd- 
ness with which he analyzed the motives of human 
moral action, and the phenomena of the natural 
world. His teaching was argumentative and con- 
vincing, his reasoning close, but he never sought to 
recommend his views, either by the embellishments 
of poetry, or by rhetorical or exciting appeals to the 
heart and affections, hence he is cold and unimpres- 
sive, but intellectually convincing. He had not that 
sense of dramatic art, which would have enabled him 
to support the life and spirit of a dialogue ; but this 
defect is more than compensated for by the systematic 
order which distinguishes his treatises. To arrange 
the contents of a dialogue of Plato in a tabular form 
would be impossible, but every treatise of Aristotle, 
almost every chapter, is capable of being exhibited to 
the student in that shape ; in fact, it scarcely admits 
of a doubt, that they took that systematic form in his 
mind, before they were made public in treatises or 
lectures. He appears always to have taken a com- 
prehensive view of his subject, to have arranged it 
mentally in such a shape, that he could see both the 
beginning and the end. Each subject was in that 
form which he himself would have termed zvgvvoktov. 
His style is often pure, always unaffected, reject- 
ing all the accessories of grace and ornament ; and 
though sometimes deficient in clearness, this defect 
does not appear to arise from mistiness of conception. 



ARISTOTLE COMPARED WITH PLATO. 283 

The extreme brevity and abruptness so frequently 
discernible, gives one the idea of notes and abstracts 
intended to be expanded when orally delivered, and to 
be fully developed by means of copious and apposite 
illustrations. Aristotle could investigate and under- 
stand the principles of artistic beauty and taste, 
although he neither felt them as an inspiration, nor 
was possessed by them, nor practised them. He was 
a critic, but not an artist. There can be little doubt 
that this is to be attributed to the peculiarity of his 
mental constitution. Plato had genius, Aristotle 
learning. Ritter considers that this was the tendency 
of the age in which he lived, an age in which the 
Greek mind was beginning to decay, for, in its youth, 
it loved art more than learning. " He was," says 
Ritter, a " the first philosopher of whom it can be said 
that learning had taken the place of art, and contri- 
buted much to establish the pre-eminence of mere 
learning, with which the later Greek writers were 
impressed." 

Struck, as one cannot help being, with his un- 
equalled learning, it is impossible not to miss, when 
reading his works, that exquisite grace which dis- 
tinguishes the language of Plato. Doubtless, the age 
in which Aristotle lived is, in some sort, the cause of 
this inferiority ; for Attic Greek prose, which, in its 
infancy, had been fostered by philosophic thought, and 
had gradually expanded to meet its requirements, had, 
in the age of Plato, reached its perfection. It then 
a Hitter, Gesch. d. Phil. ix. iii. 1. 



2 84 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

began to decline. When Plato flourished, the po- 
lite language of Athens was still that which adorned 
the comedies of Aristophanes, on a study of which he 
is said to have formed his style. There was, too, an 
analogy between the Platonic unrestrained freedom of 
speculation, and the political liberty of Athens, which 
still survived its hard and numerous struggles. In 
the time of Aristotle, Attic Greek had degenerated ; 
the comedies of Aristophanes had ceased to charm. 
The vigorous eloquence of Demosthenes, who, whilst 
by patient study he had made his own all the excel- 
lences of the Thucydidean style, had eschewed its 
faults and errors, was heard only on two occasions 
after Aristotle had established his school in the Ly- 
ceum ; the poetical rhetoric of Isocrates, which had 
formed the taste of so many distinguished orators and 
writers, had ceased altogether. The great writers 
whom we now admire had become subjects for critical 
study. There were none to vie with them, none even 
to imitate them ; Aristotle could do no more than, as 
in his " Rhetoric " and " Poetics," analyse the princi- 
ples of taste and beauty, which abounded in their 
works. 

Although the conciseness of Aristotle's style gene- 
rally gives vigour to his sentences, and one cannot 
deny to it the praise of unaffected simplicity, still he 
evidently wrote with a careless rapidity ; there is, 
generally speaking, a total absence of grace and orna- 
ment. The high authority of Cicero, who, besides 
conciseness, attributes to the style of Aristotle elo- 



CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS STYLE. 285 

quence and sweetness, seems at variance with this 
view ; but his opinion may have been formed on a 
study of his exoteric writings, some extant fragments 
of which display the polish of a more finished style. 
Manv of the works which remain to us bear marks of 
being outlines of lectures, put together, as helps to 
the memory, for the use of those who had heard them 
delivered, and the apparent abruptness and want of 
connexion were probably remedied, in the delivery, by 
the introduction of other passages, and especially by 
numerous happy illustrations. 

A cautious temper is observable in almost all his 
works. The tutor of a prince was likely, as a 
philosopher,, to be a calm student and admirer of 
authority rather than an enthusiastic striker out of 
new views. He is careful to enumerate all the doubts 
and difficulties, of which his extensive reading made 
him aware, as arising out of the opposite and con- 
flicting views maintained by the philosophers who pre- 
ceded him. This caution in weighing and balancing 
the opinions of others against his own, is doubtless 
valuable, and is characteristic of an honest and im- 
partial mind ; we feel that when he does come to a 
decision, we may follow him as a guide ; but, on the 
other hand, it is often fatal to following out a train 
of original investigation. Learning, if allowed more 
than its proper influence, is sometimes destructive 
of that degree of self-confidence which is absolutely 
necessary to a philosopher and a teacher. His 
habitual deference to authority is also manifested in 



286 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

his eagerness to support his own views, by showing 
how far they coincide with the opinions of others, or 
at least to win for them a prejudice in their favour, 
An instance of this is seen in his Nicomachus Ethics. a 
It sometimes, also, leads to confusion in his termi- 
nology, for he not unfrequently adopts that of others, 
even when scarcely adapted to give definite and exact 
expression to his own doctrines. 

One cannot, however, set too high a value on the 
practical nature of Aristotle's mind. He never forgot 
the immediate bearing of all philosophy upon the 
happiness of man, he never lost sight of man's wants 
or requirements. He saw the inadequacy of all know- 
ledge, unless he could trace in it a visible practical 
tendency. But beyond this one single point, he falls 
grievously short of his great master, Plato. All his 
ideas of man's good are limited to the considerations 
of this life alone. It is impossible to trace in his 
writings any belief in a future state or immortality. 
He speaks of the popular views entertained, 6 he ba- 
lances nicely the various opinions which he considers 
most worthy of consideration, but even in the treatise, 
in which we might expect the subject to be most 
completely treated o£ he comes to no satisfactory 
conclusion. 

In the Nicomachean Ethics, where the subject is al- 
luded to three times, he is in all these passages speak- 
ing only of a prevalent belief, but not asserting either its 

a Book i. c. 8. b Eth. i. ' De An. 



DIVISION OF HIS WORKS. 287 

trutn or falsehoods The highest idea which he forms 
of the human soul is, that it is a fifth element, an 
entelechia, b and that man's reason is identical with, 
and as eternal as, that of God. It is clear that even 
if this belief implies immortality, it does not imply 
personal identity. 

The most common division of the writings of Aris- 
totle is into two classes, namely, esoteric, called also 
acroatic or acroamatic, and exoteric, or encyclic. To 
the latter of these divisions alone does Aristotle make 
any allusion in his extant treatises ; c we may conclude, 
therefore, that all his works, which have come dowm 
to us, belong to the esoteric class. Various expla- 
nations of these terms have been given, and amongst 
them Cicero d has proposed one, of the incorrectness 
of w T hich there can be hardly any doubt. 

The following is probably the true distinction to be 
drawn. The philosophers of antiquity were not only 
the learned and scientific world of Athens, devoted to 
increasing the stores of speculation and discovery, but 
they also filled the office of public instructors, they 
were the preachers, the professors, the schoolmasters, 
of their day. As universities in modern times are 
in their original essence places of study, and there- 
fore accidentally places of education, so it was with 
the schools of the Greek metropolis. 

Hence their hearers were of two classes. One con- 

a Nic. Eth. i. 10, 11 j iii. 6. b Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 17. 

c See ex. gr. Nic. Eth. i. 13 ; vi. 4 ; Pol. iii. 6 ; vii. 1. 
d De Fin. v. 5. 



288 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

sisting of those who pursued different branches of 
science in a philosophic spirit ; the other, of those who 
were going through a course, or curriculum, of ge- 
neral study. The esoteric method of teaching was 
addressed to the former, the exoteric to the latter. 
The exoteric treatises therefore would, generally speak- 
ing, embrace the usual subjects of Athenian liberal 
education ; but as the distinction is one depending 
on the method of treatment rather than on the sub- 
ject-matter, the same subjects might be treated either 
esoterically or exoterically, according to circumstances. 

The vast extent of erudition for which Aristotle 
was distinguished, evidently comprised within its 
sphere every branch of philosophy, and each branch 
we fortunately find represented in his extant works. 
We find amongst them elaborate treatises on logic, 
of which he was the perfector, metaphysics, physical 
science, physiology, mathematics, ethics, politics, na- 
tural history, and, besides these, belles lettres, in- 
cluding rhetoric, poetry, and grammar. 

In all these will be found displayed that most 
striking feature of his mind, namely the habit of 
observation and induction, of deducing his theories 
from facts. It must not be supposed that, in the 
importance which he attributed to phenomena, he 
systematically neglected to investigate the causes 
which would account for them. It is only in some 
cases that he tells us that when we know the fact 
(to on) it is unnecessary to seek for the reason (hoTi).* 
a Nic. Eth. i. 



DEFECT OF HIS ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY. 289 

But no one can be blind to the fact that he con- 
sidered experience as the principal source of know- 
ledge, and that steadily keeping in view, as the object 
of his research, that which was within the scope of 
man's faculties, he preferred the actual to the ideal 
aspect of philosophy. 

The want of this high ideal standard is especially 
felt in his ethical philosophy. Man instinctively 
yearns for some ideal model of perfection which he 
may constantly place before his eyes, and aspire to and 
strive after, even though he feels that the imper- 
fections of his nature preclude the possibility of at- 
tainment. Our conscience, that inward witness, tells 
us that it is not true that man is not assisted by the 
contemplation of this ideal. The analogous case which 
he brings forward of the artist a is not true in point 
of fact. Not only is the artist assisted by the con- 
templation of the beautiful, but, unless he is tho- 
roughly possessed by this inspiration of art, unless 
the idea which he wishes to embody has a living 
existence within him, he will never reach the highest 
point of even human perfection. In the same way 
to deny, as Aristotle is too much inclined to do, the 
aid which the ideal furnishes, especially to some men- 
tal constitutions, is depriving man of a great aid to 
moral improvement. Aristotle would teach man to 
form his moral nature by a regard to the circum- 
stances which surrounded him. Plato would have 
led his disciple to purify himself, and to nurture 

a Nic. Eth. i. 
VOL. II. U 



290 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

within himself an admiration of virtue, by an habitual 
contemplation of a divine and perfect model. 

To describe the groundwork and method of Aris- 
totle's system briefly, and to exhibit as concisely as 
possible its contrast to that of Plato, the following 
statement will be sufficient. Plato considered the 
sensible as transitory, changeable, and therefore untrue ; 
it was but an imitation, or, at best, it enjoyed nothing 
more than a participation in that which alone had 
real existence — the ideal world. With Aristotle, on 
the contrary, experience of the sensible is the starting 
point: from the actual be ascends upwards to the 
ideal. He begins with the impressions made upon 
the senses from without, and advances, step by step, 
through each operation of consciousness, until he 
arrives at the highest energy of the intellect. 

From the fact of his commencing with the external 
and the sensible, it follows that the phenomena of 
each science must be investigated separately, and 
each science built up and constructed as a separate 
and complete whole. In itself he cannot consider 
them, as Plato does, as so many mutually connected 
parts of one harmonious whole, but parallel to and 
independent of one another. 

Hence his method is plain, simple, and uniform. 
He first defines accurately the object which he has 
in view; he then clears the ground for the edifice 
which he is about to construct, by a summary and 
critical view of pre-existing doctrines, of which he 
either admits the truth or proves the falsehood. 



HIS PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD. 291 

Next, he fairly states and discusses the difficulties 
and doubts which might naturally suggest themselves 
to the minds of the student, and then proceeds to 
trace the object of his treatise, and develope its parts, 
from its simplest and best known principles (yjwg>/^a, 
agXjoii) to its most complicated and perfect results. 



u 2 



292 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE^ 



CHAPTER XXV. 

LOGIC FULLY DEVELOPED BY ARISTOTLE. HIS ORGANON. THE CATE- 
GORIES, THEIR NATURE AND APPLICATION. THE TREATISE ON THE 

PROPOSITION. THE TWO ANALYTICS. THE TOPICS. FALLACIES. 

HIS METAPHYSICS. ORIGIN OF THE TERM. THE ORIGIN OF KNOW- 
LEDGE. THE OBJECTS OF SENSATION. — MATTER. FORM. MOTION. 

FINAL CAUSE. ENERGY. — ENTELECHY. IDEA OF GOD. PHYSICS. 

EXACTNESS NOT TO BE EXPECTED IN PHYSICAL AND MORAL 

SCIENCE. THEORY OF THE HUMAN SOUL. SENSATION. — IMAGINA- 
TION. MEMORY. SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. ETHICAL AND POLI- 
TICAL PHILOSOPHY. GENERAL SKETCH OF THE ETHICS. ITS CON- 
NECTION WITH POLITICAL SCIENCE. 

LOGIC. 

In the front of the Aristotelian philosophy must be 
placed logic, of which, as he was the first systematizer, 
so he is universally allowed to have been the finisher 
and perfecter. The science and art of reasoning, 
although illustrated and expanded by subsequent me- 
taphysicians, was fully developed by him, and has 
made no progress since his time. 

The treatise which stands at the head of his logical 
works, or " Organon," as they are called, from which 
Bacon adopted the title of " Novum Organum " for his 
system of inductive philosophy, is that on the " Cate- 
gories." These are principles of classification, which 



HIS LOGICAL WORKS. . 293 

he adopted as being naturally the highest genera under 
which all things could be arranged. They were ten in 
number — substance, quantity, quality, relation, action, 
passion, time, place, position, habit, or having. 

They were, to Aristotle, aids to systematic thought, 
at once suggesting lines of argument, and serving 
as repositories in which arguments might be stored 
up and preserved for use as occasion required. The 
tendency of his order-loving mind to seek assist- 
ances of this kind is discoverable in many parts of 
his works. Two examples of this will be sufficient. 
In the " Ethics," 3 the difference between absolute 
and relative (an application of the category of rela- 
tion) often furnishes him with a convenient principle 
of distinction ; and, again, the recognised division of 
the principles of human nature into capacities, pas- 
sions, and habits, is the leading and fundamental 
idea on which he constructs his theory of Virtue. 5 

The " Categories " are followed by the treatise 
Hzgi 'JLgpqvefag, which consists of an analysis of the 
proposition, both logical and grammatical, as the 
" Categories " had for their object the nature and 
classification of simple terms. The two " Analytics " 
then succeed, which treat of the whole subject of 
formal logic, but especially argument, the logical 
form of which is the syllogism. The book on the 
"Topics," or common places, the "Loci" of Cicero, 
the heads or sources from which may be derived 
arguments of probability, follow next ; and, lastly, 
a Nic. Eth. ii. 5 and 7. b Ibid. ii. 4. 



294 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

an investigation of the subject of fallacies completes 
the " Organon." 

METAPHYSICS. 

With the science of logic is closely connected that 
of metaphysics, which, as it is the science of " that 
which is," the highest good, the universal, the first 
principles and causes of things, Aristotle dignifies with 
the highest titles. He calls metaphysics the first 
philosophy, or even philosophy absolutely, wisdom, 
theology. His metaphysical system is not entirely 
comprehended in the books which bear this title, but 
wherever the ro o», or the nature of the Deity, is 
discussed, there scattered notices of this system will 
be found. The title given to this collection of 
treatises is a mere arbitrary one invented in later 
times, probably by Andronicus Rhodius, having no 
relation to the subject-matter of the treatises them- 
selves, but simply stating that, in the collection of the 
entire works, their place was in order of arrangement 
next to the physics. They were entitled Tav pera ra 
(pvffizM, A — N. 

As the foundation of his philosophy of mind, Aris- 
totle held that the origin of all knowledge is the 
perception of the senses. In his ethics as well as 
his metaphysics, he states that we must begin with 
that which is known to ourselves {yvu^cc tfuv), and 
thence advance to that which is known absolutely 
{yvtypu a^Xoog), a and that the only right method of 
a Met. vii. 4 ; Eth. i. 2. 



KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM SENSATION. 295 

investigation is inductive, i.e., to collect facts and 
thence deduce general principles. After that the 
intellectual process (hdvota) commences, which con- 
tinues until the investigation is completed. 3 The 
intellect is then at rest, and science (st/otj^) is the 
result. 

The difference between the Platonic and Aris- 
totelian theory in this respect is plain. Plato main- 
tained that the human mind, having previously pos- 
sessed all ideas which constitute knowledge, recovered 
them by reminiscence, and therefore all branches of 
science were connected together. Aristotle, on the 
other hand, taught that each particular sensation 
is the principle and beginning of a particular chain 
of thought, and, therefore, that any one branch of 
science may be pursued separately. 

If sensation is the avenue to knowledge, it is neces- 
sary to investigate the objects of sensation. Their 
constituent parts which present themselves to the 
senses, are matter (vkq) and form (pogtpq). The only 
view in which Aristotle's notion of matter can be 
presented, is a negative one. If it can be conceived 
possible to separate, mentally, from any object every 
conceivable property, accident, or predi cable of every 
kind, the residuum would be matter. It is, therefore, 
the substratum of essence. It is clear, therefore, that 
Aristotle did not confine the term matter to the 
modern signification of it ; nay, he expressly distin- 
guishes matter, conceivable by the intellect, from that 
a De Part. An. i. 1. b Met. vii. 10, 



296 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

which is apprehended by the senses. In fact, the 
distinction is similar to that which we recognize be- 
tween a mechanical and mathematical point, line, or 
superficies. Matter, then, being not essence, but the 
substratum of essence, it implies not " being," but 
"capability of being," or "potentiality" (Ivvccpig). 
Form, on the other hand, implies " actuality" (Ivigysia), 
and, therefore, form expresses more nearly the nature 
of anything, for essence may more properly be pre- 
dicated when a thing is actually, than when it is 
potentially. a 

The next subject of metaphysical inquiry to matter 
and form, is motion. Motion is the transition from 
potentiality to actuality. Now, matter is neither self- 
producing nor self-moving. b Therefore, the moving 
cause must be external and independent, and as each 
motion must have a cause, we must at last arrive 
at a First Cause, which is self-existent and eternal. 

We have now mentioned three out of the four ne- 
cessary causes of phenomena enumerated by Aristotle. 
Matter and form furnish the material and formal causes, 
and the third is the moving cause by which matter 
passes into form. The fourth, of which he maintained 
the necessity, is the final cause. Every thing in 
Nature is done with some end. Although chance may 
be said contingently (pcccroi (rvfJbQsQyjzog) to be a cause, 
yet absolutely (asrXafe) it is the cause of nothing. d 
Every thing in Nature indicates design, the end to 

a Phys. ii. 1. b Met. i. 3 ; iv. 5. 

c Phys. v. 1. d Ibid. ii. 5. 



HIS IDEA OF DEITY. 297 

which the operations of Nature are directed is " the 
good," and this is the noblest subject of philosophical 
investigation. 

In order to understand Aristotle's notion of the 
Deity it is necessary to explain the two philosophical 
terms energy ( mgyuu ), and entelechy ( ImXs^s/a ), the 
latter of which is one of his own invention. By en- 
ergy, then, is meant an activity or active state. It is op- 
posed to Ivvupig , i.e., capacity or potentiality. Energy 
implies actual and active existence, not a mere possible 
and potential one. The term entelechy is not so easy 
to define, as Aristotle is not very accurate in the use 
of it. Sometimes he uses it as equivalent to energy ; 
and Ritter maintains that between the two there is no 
essential difference. 3 This view is supported by the 
following definition. " Entelechy is the form of that 
which exists in potentiality." b From this it would 
appear that entelechy bears to potentiality the same 
relation which form does to matter, and therefore 
would be equivalent to actuality or energy. The sense, 
however, in which he most consistently uses the term 
is, " The highest state of development to which each 
thing is capable of arriving." So far, therefore, as the 
active state is the highest state of perfection of which 
anything is capable, it is identical with energy ; but it 
is obvious that if it be the same it is regarded from a 
different point of view. Energy is an absolute term, 
entelechy is a relative one, for the capacity of the 
object is always taken into consideration. 

a Kit. ix. iii. 3. b De An. ii. 4. 



298 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Now God is the great First Cause, eternal, moving 
all things, himself unmoved. In his essence he unites 
potentiality, energy, entelechy. Aristotle maintained 
the unity of the Deity, and that God is the governing 
principle of the universe, for he quotes in support of his 
view a verse from the " Iliad " in praise of monarchy.* 
He is pure intellect, and as the perfection of intel- 
lect is self-conscious activity, God is at once thought, 
and the object of thought. Lastly, as God is the 
supreme good he is the highest object of scientific con- 
templation. This is the sum and substance of Aris- 
totle's ideas respecting the Supreme Being ; and al- 
though he invests him with all these attributes, the 
result is indefinite and unsatisfactory, for it is, after all, 
impossible to determine whether, according to his phi- 
losophy, God and the universe are not identical, and 
therefore whether his theism is anything more than 
pantheism. 

'physics. 

In his treatment of physical, as well as moral 
science, Aristotle is careful to caution his hearers 
against expecting the same degree of exactness 
( ctzg&ua ) which distinguishes metaphysics. 5 The 
object of the latter is the necessary, eternal, and un- 
changeable, whilst that of physics is the corporeal and 
changeable, and that of ethics the contingent. Owing 
to the materialist view which Aristotle takes of the 
human soul, psychology forms a part of physiology- 
a Met. xii. 10. b Ibid. vi. 1 ; Nic. Eth. i. 



HIS THEORY OF THE SOUL. 299 

Intellect, indeed, from its being pure essence, and 
Laving a cognate relation to the Divine nature, enters 
into his metaphysical investigations, but that in which 
intellect or reason resides comes within the domain of 
the corporeal. 

The soul is the final cause, for the sake of which the 
body exists, a and the bodily organs are but so many 
mechanical contrivances for assisting and perfecting 
the energy of the soul. But notwithstanding this sub- 
ordination of body to soul, the existence of the body 
is a condition indispensable to the existence of the 
soul. 

Assuming, then, this necessary connection between 
the two, and combining it with 'the principle of per- 
fection, he defines the soul as " the first entelechy of 
a physical organic body." b By a first entelechy he 
means the possessing the essence of activity, even 
though it may be dormant and inactive. Although 
he does not venture to determine, whether the soul is 
only nominally or really divisible, he denies to it that 
property of magnitude which we term extension. His 
division of the soul into parts may be best under- 
stood by the following tables, which are founded 
upon the two views given in the Nicomachean 
ethics :— 

* De An. i. 3. b Ibid. ii. 1. c Nic. Eth. i. 13. 



300 



GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



(1.) 
The Soul. 



Irrational. 



Possessing Reason. 



Vegetative. 



Resisting 
Reason. 



Obeying 
Reason. 

(2.) 
The Soul. 



L 



\g ±teason pro- 
perly and in itself. 



Irrational. 



Possessing Reason. 



Vegetative. 



The seat of the Passions and Appetites. 



Obeying Reason. Resisting Reason. 

The vegetative part of the soul is the principle of 
growth and reproduction; that part which possesses 
reason is the seat of sensation and of the intellectual 
faculties. 

Sensation is like an impression on wax. a The soul 
receives the form and likeness of the sensible, just as 
the wax receives the form but not the matter of the 
seal. ^Sensation, then, is the first step to the opera- 
tions of the intellect. " Nihil est in intellectu quod non 
erat in sensu;" and hence, by a process of development, 
and mental progress from particulars to universals 
(lidvoia), are produced imagination, and voluntary and 
involuntary memory. 

The Aristotelian system of the universe is derived 

a De An. ii. 5. 



HIS SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. 301 

from his theory of motion. His reasoning is as fol- 
lows : — A perpetual motion is the only cause which 
will account for the continuous change and succession 
of phenomena which is observable in the natural order 
of things, and the only motion which can be perpetual 
must be circular. From this he deduces that the 
universe is spherical in form, continually moving in its 
centre, but having no motion of translation. 3 In the 
centre of the universe is the earth, because the ten- 
dency of the terrestrial is to the centre ; b round it 
move the planets, and beyond these lies the orbit of 
the fixed stars. The four elements are formed by the 
combinations of the four principles, — the moist, or 
fluid (vygov) ; the dry, or solid (fyigov) ; the cold (-^vxgov) ; 
and the hot (Sg^w). 

It only remains now to devote a few words to his 
theory of earthly objects. A principle of vitality per- 
vades and animates all things, for even the elements 
themselves participate in the universal principle of 
life. Between the highest and lowest states of being 
there is a gradual transition and progressive advance, 
Nature proceeds from imperfection to perfection, from 
inanimate objects to plants, which possess only the 
life of growth and increase. From thence, to the 
inferior animals, which are distinguished by indivisible 
personality and vitality; and from these she rises to 
that highest perfection and rational entelechy, the 
human soul. 

a Phys. iv. 5. b De Ocel. ii. 12—14. 

c Nic. Eth. i. 13. 



302 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

We may pass over his anatomical treatises and 
mechanical problems, and also his historical works, as 
well as those on natural history ; because, of the first 
only a few scattered fragments remain, and the latter, 
though admirable for the accurate observation and 
erudition which they display, must necessarily be im- 
perfect and unsatisfactory. His ethical and political 
philosophy, which must be next considered, forms the 
most interesting and important portion of Aristotelian 
literature, perhaps not even excepting his logical 
works. 

In mental and moral philosophy, the subject of study 
lies within a narrow compass, and is within the reach 
of the philosopher. His self-consciousness supplies 
him with all his materials for thought. He analyses 
the faculties of his own mind. He contemplates the 
moral wants and aspirations which he himself expe- 
riences, and the moral motives which actuate his 
conduct. Hence the logical system of Aristotle has 
never been superseded, and his ethical system is the 
basis of all sound moral philosophy. The political 
philosopher, moreover, has not far to go for his ma- 
terials. The relation in which he stands to the body 
politic of which he is a member, supply the data upon 
which he founds his political creed ; and although his 
views may be partial and confined, and inapplicable 
to the millions of which the giant communities of 
modern times are composed, they are invaluable illus- 
trations of Greek political modes of thought, and of 
the views which the wisest and deepest thinkers took 



HIS ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY. 303 

respecting national happiness, and the mutual obliga- 
tions of the governors and governed. 

ETHICS. 

Aristotle's ethical system is contained in the treatise 
which has for its title the Nicomachean Ethics. Its 
authenticity cannot be doubted, although it has been 
attributed to his son Nicomachus. Two other works 
are extant on the same subject. 1. The Eudemean 
Ethics in seven books, of which three are identical 
with the fifth, sixth, and seventh books of the Nico- 
machean Ethics. This treatise is probably a compi- 
lation by Eudemus from the lectures of Aristotle. 
2. The Great Ethics, which is either the original out- 
line of the complete treatise, or an abstract of it, 
by some subsequent philosopher. The following is 
a brief sketch of the Nicomachean Ethics. 

Moral science constitutes a subdivision of the more 
comprehensive science of politics.* Man is a social 
being ; that science, therefore, which professes to in- 
vestigate the subject of human good, will study the 
nature of man, not only as an individual, but also 
as a member of a family, 5 and of a state. c Aristotle, 
therefore, divides politics into three parts. Ethics, 
economics, and politics, strictly so called. 

Ethics, or the science of individual good, must be 

the ground-work of the rest. Families and states 

are composed of individuals ; unless, therefore, the 

parts be good, the whole cannot be perfect. The 

a Eth. i. 7. b Ibid. vi. 8. c Ibid. i. 2. 



304 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

development, therefore, of the principles of man's 
moral nature must necessarily precede an investiga- 
tion of the principles which regulate human society. 

It is plain, from these considerations, that the subject 
of ethics is entirely practical ; it is not therefore neces- 
sary to examine into the nature of good abstractedly, 
but only so far as it relates to man. So alien to 
his subject does Aristotle consider any ideal standard 
of good, that he considers the knowledge of it useless 
to the study of that good, which is attainable by man. a 

The foundation of Aristotle's ethics is deeply laid 
on his psychological system. He assumes that we are 
born with a natural capacity for receiving virtuous 
impressions, and for forming virtuous habits : b and his 
conception of the nature of this capacity is so high 
a one, that he terms it " natural virtue." Man is 
endowed with a moral sense, a perception of moral 
beauty and excellence, and with an acuteness d on 
practical subjects which, when cultivated, is improved 
into prudence or moral wisdom. 6 Virtue is the 
law under which we are born, that law which, if we 
would attain to happiness, we are bound to fulfil. 

Happiness, in its highest and purest sense, is our 
" being's end and aim." f It is an energy or activity 
of the soul, according to the law of virtue/ As man 
possesses capacities for moral action, together with 
a natural taste for that which is morally beautiful, 

a Eth. i. 6. b Ibid. ii. 1. c Ibid. vi. 13. 

d Ibid. vi. 10. e Ibid. vi. 5. f Ibid. i. 4, 7. 

* Ibid. i. 7. 



MAN A FREE AGENT. 305 

and a natural disposition or instinct, as it were, to 
good acts; virtue and happiness are possible and at- 
tainable. Had this not been the case all moral in- 
struction would be useless. That for which Nature 
had not given man a capacity would have been beyond 
his reach ; for that which exists by Nature, custom 
can never change. 3 

But this natural disposition or bias is a mere 
potentiality (hvvapig) ; it is possessed, but not active. 
In order to become so, it must be directed by the 
will, and the will 5 must be directed to a right end 
by deliberate preference or moral principle. Aristo- 
tle believed in the free agency of man, and therefore 
in his moral responsibility. 

Man has power over his actions. He can act, or 
abstain from acting. By repeated acts, habits are 
formed, either of virtue or vice ; and therefore man 
is responsible for his whole character when formed, 
as well as for each act which contributes to its for- 
mation. 41 

What then is virtue ? It is a habit ; it is based 
upon the natural capacities of the human soul ; it is 
formed and established by a voluntary agent acting 
under the guidance of moral principle. But to these 
conditions it is also necessary to add what the end 
or object is at which the habit is to aim. An in- 
duction of instances shows that it is a mean, not 
an absolute, but a relative one ; that is, one relative 

a Eth. ii. 1. b Ibid. iii. 1. 

c Ibid. iii. 2. d Ibid. iii. 5. 

VOL. II. X 



306 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

to the internal moral constitution, and to the external 
circumstances of the agent. a 

Of this relative mean, each man must judge for 
himself, under the guidance of his conscience, purified 
by moral discipline and enlightened by education. 
The philosopher can only enunciate general princi- 
ples, the individual must do the rest. The casuist 
may profess to lay down accurate special rules for 
conduct, which will meet every case, but his pro- 
fessions will be unfulfilled. He will, from the very 
nature of the subject, fail of making morals a definite 
and exact science, 15 like that of mathematics. There 
must always be something left on which the moral 
sense may exercise its judicial functions. 

The discussion of the virtues or mean states, both 
moral and intellectual, forms an important portion 
of the Aristotelian ethics. Amongst them will be 
found many virtues which belong to man in his po- 
litical, rather than his individual character ; Mag- 
nificence, that virtue of the rich, which to an Athe- 
nian mind appeared nearly akin to patriotism*/ the 
Social qualities, 6 which are not generally raised to 
the rank of virtues, but which, nevertheless, con- 
tribute so much to the happiness of every-day life ; 
Justice/ not only that universal justice which im- 
plies the doing to every one according to the laws of 
God and man, and, therefore, is synonymous with 
virtue ; but also that particular justice, which is more 

a Eth. ii. 2. b Ibid. i. 7. c Ibid. iii. 6, to vi. 13. 
d Ibid. iv. 2. e Ibid. iv. 6. f Ibid. v. 



RELATION OF FRIENDSHIP TO ETHICS. 307 

especially exercised by administrative or executive 
authority; and lastly, Friendship, 3 the law of sym- 
pathy and love between the virtuous and good, based 
upon, and originating in, a reasonable self-love, not, 
indeed, strictly speaking, a virtue, but indispensable 
to virtue and human happiness. 

Friendship is a subject on which the mind of 
Greece especially loved to dwell. It pervaded many 
of her historical and poetical traditions ; it was inter- 
woven with many of her best institutions, her holiest 
recollections. In one of its forms, that of hospitality, 
it was a bond which united Greeks in one vast family, 
even in times of bitter hostility. A Greek moral 
philosopher, therefore, would scarcely have accom- 
plished his task, if the discussion of this subject had 
not formed part of his treatise. And when we find 
that Aristotle places friendship so high as to say that 
its existence would supersede justice, and render it 
unnecessary, and that the true friend loves his friend 
for that friend's sake, and for that motive alone, it 
seems to approach very nearly to the Christian rule 
of charity, which, based on principle, and not merely 
on instinct, is said to be " the fulfilling of the law." 

Aristotle treats of moral and intellectual virtues 
separately; but he did not think that they could 
exist separately. Moral virtue implies the due re- 
gulation of our moral nature with all its appetites, 
instincts, and passions ; these, therefore, must be in 
subjection to the reason. Again, the reason does 

a Eth. viii. and ix. 

x2 



308 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

not act with all the vigour of which it is capable, 
unless the moral nature is in a well-regulated state. 
Hence man's moral and intellectual faculties recipro- 
cally act and react upon each other ; every good reso- 
lution carried into effect, every act of self-control and 
moral discipline, increases the vigour of the pure 
reason, and renders it more able to perform its work. a 

Moreover, the more powerful the reason becomes, 
the fewer external obstacles to its energies it meets 
with, the more effectually does it influence the moral 
nature, and render permanent the moral habits. Thus 
continence is gradually improved into temperance ; b 
and, if human nature were capable of attaining 
perfection, man would attain to that ideal standard 
which Aristotle calls heroic virtue. But this is 
above human virtue, just as its opposite, brutality, is 
never found, so long as human nature continues in 
its normal condition, — but only when bodily mutila- 
tion, or moral perversion, or the influence of barbarism, 
has so far degraded the human being, that he may 
be considered as having entirely ceased to be a 
man. d 

Aristotle, in conclusion, proceeds to treat of pleasure. 
Pleasure had been so interwoven with other moral 
systems, 6 that it was necessary to define accurately the 
place which it ought to occupy in the Aristotelian 
ethical system. 

Pleasure, then, had been held by Plato and others 

a Eth. vi. 13. •» Ibid. vii. 8. c Ibid. vii. 1. 

d Ibid. vii. 5. e Ibid. x. 2, 3. 



NATURE OF PLEASURE. 309 

to be a motion, or a generation, and therefore of a 
transitory or transient nature ; this Aristotle denies, 
and affirms it to be a whole, indivisible, complete, 
perfect, giving a perfection, a finish, as it were, to 
an energy, being, as he says, what the bloom is to 
youth. a 

But, if so, pleasure must be active ; it cannot be 
simply rest ; and yet the opinion of mankind ap- 
pears to be in favour of the notion of its being rest, 
in some sense or other. These apparent inconsis- 
tencies are reconciled in the following manner : — 
pleasure is rest as regards the body, but energy as 
regards the mind. It is an activity of the soul, — not 
a mere animal activity. This marks the difference 
between true and false pleasures. 

Those which are consequent upon the mere activity 
of our corporeal nature, are low and unreal; those 
which attend upon the energies of our intellectual 
nature, are true and perfect. Again, pleasure occupies 
an important place in morals, as a test of our habits, 
he who feels pleasure in self-denial is really tem- 
perate, he who feels uneasiness is not so. b 

But as happiness is an energy of the soul, accord- 
ing to its highest virtue, contemplative happiness 
must be superior to every other kind, and must con- 
stitute the chief good of man. 

If, then, contemplation is the end and object of 
man — his chief good, his highest happiness —why has 
Aristotle attributed so much importance to the for- 
a Eth. x. 4. b Ibid. ii. 2. c Ibid. x. 7. 



310 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

mation of the moral character? Because, until the 
moral character is formed, man is unfit not only for 
enjoying, but also for forming a correct conception 
of the happiness derived from contemplation. Place 
before his eyes, in the commencement of his search 
after happiness, intellectual contemplation, as the end 
at which he is aiming, and he would neither be able 
to understand its nature nor estimate its value. It 
is only by the gradual perfection of our moral nature 
that the intellect is enabled to act purely and unin- 
terruptedly. The improvement of the moral faculties 
will go on parallel with that of the intellect. If we 
begin with contemplation, we shall neither find sub- 
jects for it of a nature sufficiently exalted to insure 
real happiness, nor shall we be in a condition to 
derive happiness from such subjects if suggested to 
us. Begin with moral training, and we shall attain 
to higher capacities for intellectual happiness, derived 
from the contemplation of abstract truth. The 
Gospel teaches the value of this method of training; 
that in divine things the improvement of the heart is 
the way to the cultivation of the understanding : " If 
any man will do God's will, he shall know of the 
doctrine, whether it be of God." a 

Aristotle connects ethics with politics in the follow- 
ing manner. 5 The idea of a state implies a human 
society formed upon just, moral, or reasonable prin- 
ciples. These principles are developed in its insti- 
tutions ; its object is the greatest good of the body 
a St. John vii. 17. b Bth. x. 9. 



CONNEXION OF ETHICS WITH POLITICS. 311 

corporate ; and, so far as it can be attained consistently 
with this primary end, the greatest good of each 
family and individual. Now, on the morality of the 
individual members, the morality, and therefore the 
welfare and happiness, of the body depends ; for, as 
in a state, i.e., a free state, the source of power is 
ultimately the people, on the moral tone of the people 
the character of the institutions framed by them or 
their representatives must depend. Hence a state 
must recognize the moral culture and education of the 
people as a duty. Private systems of education may, 
doubtless, possess some advantages, such as their 
superior capability of being adapted to particular 
cases, but still they are inferior to a public system 
in uniformity, and in the power of enforcing their 
authority. 

If, then, morals are the result of education, and 
education the duty of the state, and if provision is to 
be made for it by well-regulated public institutions, 
the science of politics must be investigated or system- 
atized. Besides, in order to secure the advantages of 
private education, every one who would administer 
such a system efficiently should study the general 
political principles of education, and thus endeavour 
to fit himself for legislating respecting them. 



312 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

ECONOMICS. — SLAVERY. — ANALOG? OF A FAMILY TO A STATE. POLI- 
TICS. DEFINITION OF A STATE. TWO SUBJECTS FOR CONSIDERA- 
TION. THREE FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. — THREE DEGENERATE FORMS. 

PROPERTY QUALIFICATION A SAFE PRINCIPLE. THE ANTI-DEMOCRA- 
TIC BIAS OF ARISTOTLE. — STATE OF POLITICAL OPINION AT ATHENS. 

— INFLUENCES ACTING UPON THE OPINIONS OF ARISTOTLE. HIS 

HONESTY. HIS LEADING PRINCIPLE. INTERNAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

PROPERTY. — EDUCATION. RHETORIC, ITS REAL OBJECT. ANALYSIS 

OF THE RHETORIC. — ANALYSIS OF THE POETIC. CRITICAL SPIRIT 

OF THE AGE.— CONCLUSION. 

ECONOMICS. 

It has been already shown that Aristotle considers 
ethics, economics, and politics as parts of one great 
whole, that is — the science of social life. The inter- 
mediate link between the individual and the state is 
the family — the earliest and simplest form of human 
society, the image and likeness of the political system, 
the bud from which all political institutions are ex- 
panded and developed. The science of economics 
deals with all the domestic relations, those which 
subsist between husband and wife, parent and child, 
master and slave, for holding, as the Greeks always 
did, the natural right of Greeks over barbarians, 
Aristotle considers slavery as a natural dispensation. 



ANALOGY OF A FAMILY TO A STATE 313 

Political freedom is a condition of Hellenic birth — a 
privilege inseparable from it. a These domestic rela- 
tions he considers as analogous to the political, and 
illustrates the one by the other. A family resembles 
a monarchy, in which the father is the sovereign. 5 
The relation between the husband and wife is aristo- 
cratical, whilst that of brothers is timocratical, or one 
of political equality. The treatise on this subject, 
attributed to Aristotle, consists of two books; but 
of these it is probable that only the first is genuine. 
The authenticity even of this has been disputed, and 
it has been ascribed, without reason, to Theophrastus. 

POLITICS. 

A state is a community formed by the union of 
families for mutual assistance and protection, and the 
supply of each other's wants. Its objects are mutual 
benefit, and the establishment of order and virtue, 
and therefore happiness. The result of this union is 
independence and self-sufficiency ( ccvTaozsia) which 
cannot be attained in a state of isolation. 

The two subjects, the consideration of which Aris- 
totle proposes to himself, are — first, what that highest 
standard is at which the legislator ought to aim : 
next, what modification of this it is possible to attain. 
Of course this latter condition will be determined 
by the circumstances of the country and the character 
of the people. 

a Econ. i. 5 ; Pol. i. 2 ; Eth. viii. 
b Econ. i. i. 3 ; Eth. viii. 10 ; Pol. i. 7. c Pol. iv. 1, 



314 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

There are three forms of government — monarchy, 
aristocracy, and free constitutional government, which 
he names timocracy, a or polity. Of these there are 
three degenerate forms — tyranny, oligarchy, and 
democracy. This division is not strictly coincident 
with that given in the " Rhetoric," but it differs only 
so far as might be expected from the higher degree 
of scientific accuracy with which the subject is neces- 
sarily treated in the " Ethics " and " Politics." Of 
these constitutions he considers monarchy the best, as 
it implies a perfectly wise and just sovereign, whose 
only object is the good of his people; but its de- 
generate form, tyranny, he holds to be the worst 
form possible. On the other hand, timocracy is the 
worst ; but its corruption, democracy, is less vicious 
than any of the other degenerate forms. To this con- 
clusion he comes partly from experience, partly from 
the theoretical idea that the opposition is the greatest 
between monarchy and tyranny, whilst the difference 
is but slight between democracy and a free constitution. 

In this statement of the Aristotelian doctrine, 
there are two points especially deserving of obser- 
vation. First, that Aristotle's view of a free con- 
stitution was a safe and constitutional one. The 
term timocracy, by which he designates it, implies 
that power is distributed according to a property 
qualification (avo ri(Jbq(jijd7av). b This, whilst it is the 
true principle of free government, is the great safe- 
guard against what he considered the most fearful 

a Eth. viii. 10—12 ; Rhet. i. 8 ; Pol. iii. 7. b Eth. viii. 10. 



PROPERTY QUALIFICATION A SAFE PRINCIPLE. 315 

evil — ochlocracy, or the tyranny of the multitude. 
On this principle no citizen is excluded from rising 
to the highest eminence, and enjoying the greatest 
privileges. The qualification of birth presents an 
effectual barrier ; that of virtue is a standard too 
indeterminate for man to judge by ; but the acqui- 
sition of property is open to talent, and perseverance, 
and industry. It was the principle which distin- 
guished the constitution of Solon, to which admiring 
Athens had returned after the tyranny of the Thirty. 
It was the system by which the previously impassable 
barrier of patrician privilege was broken down, and 
plebeian rights and liberties, recognized at Rome 
under the constitution which bears the name of 
Servius Tullius, and which ever after formed the 
basis of distinction of ranks, and the distribution of 
political power in that republic. 

The other point is, that the tendency of Aristotle's 
views is from democratical institutions to monarchy 
and aristocracy. Even the bias of the Greek mind 
had now taken this direction. The return to the con- 
stitution of Solon, rather than to that of Clisthenes, 
from which latter is to be dated the firm establish- 
ment of Greek freedom, was a retrograde step from that 
liberty which was overthrown by the "Reign of Ter- 
ror." One cannot be surprised at this : it is plain that 
tyranny was, as it always inevitably must be, the first 
result of anarchy, the fiery trial through which, after 
a revolutionary period, a nation passes before it re- 
gains rational freedom. And at Athens anarchy was 



316 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the result of the influence of demagogy upon law- 
less and unbridled liberty. 

Greek liberty flourished for one century, and then 
died. Afterwards it never completely revived again. 
It recovered, but it was but a sickly plant ; its institu- 
tions, which had been so long the glory of Greece, 
had no longer the same hold on the enthusiastic affec- 
tions of the people. From the period of the Thirty 
until the days of Aristotle, Athens seems to have 
been passing through a transition state, gradually 
preparing her for that quiet submission with which 
she, like the rest of the world, succumbed to the 
encroachments of the mighty conqueror. If such was 
the leaning of the Athenian people, still less sur- 
prising is it to find in Aristotle an antagonist to 
popular government. Plato had seen with his own 
eyes all its worst phases, and would doubtless have 
used his influence to bias the views and opinions of his 
disciple. And as for his own independent opinions the 
circumstances of his life would all tend to form them 
after the same model. The son of a courtier, pa- 
tronized by a sovereign prince, entrusted with the 
education of his heir, his predilections would naturally 
all be towards monarchy. The tutor of Alexander 
could not be a democrat. But he was not warped by 
prejudice or misled by private feelings, or bribed by 
patronage and favour. His views on politics were, as 
on other subjects, upright, uncompromising, impartial, 
and critical : he was not blind to the fact that the evils 
of irresponsible government are even worse than mob- 



IMPORTANCE OF MIDDLE CLASSES. 317 

rule, and that such a monarchy as he admires, however 
perfect in theory, is in practice impossible to realize. 

The constitution which appeared attainable to his 
practical mind was a free one. The great point was 
to establish the supremacy of the good, whether by the 
authority of one or many. Hence he thought that 
the interests to which a legislator should pay chief 
regard are those of the middle classes, 4 in order that 
there may be protection against the encroachments of 
oligarchy on the one hand, and of democracy on the 
other. 

Such are Aristotle's general political principles. The 
following are the internal arrangements which he 
recommends. On the subject of property his views 
were diametrically opposed to those of Plato. A 
community of goods he held to be equally destructive 
of private virtue and of public wealth, whilst a com- 
munity of women, as it put an end to all domestic 
relations, struck a fatal blow to his fundamental prin- 
ciple, that a body politic is formed by the union of 
families, and that the political relation is a develop- 
ment of the economical. 

So opposed was he to anything like communism that 
he considered inequality of property a healthy and 
desirable state of things ; nor was he ignorant of that 
important principle in political economy — the division 
of labour. The enfranchised citizens were to have 
sufficient property and leisure to devote themselves to 
public duties, whilst the rest were to be condemned to 
a Pol. iii. 15. 



318 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

labour, and kept distinct, as if inferior to their more 
fortunate brethren. 

But the great duty of the state is, as the con- 
clusion of the " Ethics" prepares us to expect, educa- 
tion : he felt that the happiness of a state entirely 
depends on the physical and moral excellence of its 
citizens. Home education and home influences were 
to exert their power until seven years of age, a and 
were then to be succeeded by a public system. No 
mental education was to commence until the age of 
seven, although a course of preparation for it might 
take place during the two preceding years. Judicious 
as these instructions doubtless are, his views on the 
subject of education are narrow and confined. He 
includes in it only grammar, drawing, gymnastics, and 
music ; and, though he speaks in high terms of the 
liberal sciences, he seems to fear that they may perhaps 
be carried so far as to be both physically and morally 
injurious. 5 It seems as though he thought that the very 
philosophy in which he delighted should only be pursued 
by the few, and by no means be used as a means of 
education for the many — an inconsistency which, it 
must be confessed, appears incapable of explanation. 

RHETORIC AND POETIC. 

His treatises on the arts of rhetoric and poetry 
complete the cycle of Aristotelian literature. 

The rhetoric of Aristotle's time, as taught in the 
school of Isocrates, was showy and superficial. Argu- 
a Pol. vii. 15—17. b Ibid. viii. 2. 



SYSTEMATIC FORM OF THE RHETORIC. 319 

mentative proof was considered as subordinate to a 
polished style and powerful appeals to the passions. a 
The art had also fallen into disrepute, because of 
the abuse of it, and because its professors often, in 
a sophistical spirit, used their skill to make the 
" worse appear the better reason." Aristotle under- 
took not only to rescue it from this discredit, by 
showing that abuse is no argument against the use 
of any science, but also to prove that all popular 
systems had lost sight of the real object of rhetoric, 
which is primarily to persuade and convince the in- 
tellect, whilst the ornaments of style and appeals to 
the passions are only secondary. 

No treatise of Aristotle is capable of being exhibited 
in so systematic a form as the " Rhetoric." b His defi- 
nition of rhetoric is, "The faculty of understanding the 
means of persuasion on any subject." And he describes 
it as the counterpart of logic, inasmuch as neither is 
conversant with any definite science, and all men, to 
a certain extent, are able to reason as logicians, or 
to accuse and defend as rhetoricians. 

The treatise on rhetoric consists of three parts, 
of which the first treats of the means of persuasion 
(snVr/c), the second of style (Xs|/?), the third of arrange- 
ment (rafyg). The first and most important of these 
occupies the whole of the first two books, nearly 
three-fourths of the treatise, whilst style and arrange- 
ment are comprised in the third. There are two subdi- 
visions of the means of persuasion, namely, those which 
a Met. LI. b Ibid. i. 2. * Ibid. i. 1. 



320 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

do, and those which do not belong to an artificial 
system (ivrv/jioi tcou olre^ot Tiarstg). The olrs^voi are 
five in number, namely, laws, witnesses, legal instru- 
ments, torture, oaths. The hrs^ot are three. 

1. The logical, or argumentative proof. 

2. The ethical, or the moral character of the speaker 
as manifested in his speaking. 

3. The pathetical, or the appeal to the passions. 
The nature of the argumentative proof will differ 

according to species of rhetoric in which it is em- 
ployed. These species are three in number, namely, 
the deliberative, the judicial, and the demonstra- 
tive. The end or object of the first is the expe- 
dient and inexpedient ; that of the second, the just 
and the unjust ; that of the third, the honourable and 
disgraceful. As an aid to the student, he proceeds 
to enumerate a large number of common places, from 
which arguments may be drawn suitable to the par- 
ticular end which he has in view. Such is a brief 
analysis of the first book. 

The second is principally devoted to a masterly 
exposition of the passions, and of the habits and 
feelings peculiarly belonging to the periods of youth, 
maturity, and age, and to those who are endowed 
with the gifts of nobility, wealth, power, and pros- 
perity. He next enumerates the topics, or common 
places, which are common to all the species of oratory 
as well as the common means of persuasion. Such 
as examples, maxims, and the elements from which 
are derived both real and fallacious enthymemes. 



ANALYSIS OF STYLE. 321 

Lastly, he lays down two modes of meeting the 
arguments of an adversary, namely, either by proving 
the contradictory of his conclusions (ccvrtcvKkoyHTfAog), 
or by objecting to the matter and form of his reason- 
ing (evcrccffig) . 

In analysing the subject of style, Aristotle first 
treats of the single words of which it is composed, 
and next of sentences, their adaptation to please 
the ear and satisfy the intellect. 

The first virtue of style is perspicuity; as far as 
words are concerned this is accomplished by the use 
of words in their general acceptation (zvgiu), and by 
words used in their primary sense (ohsioc). Although 
these words are opposed to metaphors, Aristotle 
would not by this rule exclude that large class of 
words which, although metaphorical, have become 
so naturalized as no longer to produce the effects of 
ornament and embellishment. 

But perspicuity must not be attained at the sa- 
crifice of dignity and beauty. These excellencies will 
be attained by the use of metaphors, and such words 
of uncommon use and foreign origin as shall prevent 
the appearance of homeliness. 

The pleasure derived from metaphors and other 
words, which enhance the beauty of style, is referred 
by Aristotle a to the consciousness of learning or dis- 
covery. 

Attention must also be paid to beauty in sound 
as well as sense. Above all, in obeying these arti- 

a Rhet. c. x. 
VOL. II. Y 



322 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ficial rules, the precept must be remembered that 
artis est celare artem. His sentiment on this subject 
was that which was afterwards enunciated by Quinc- 
tilian, a " Ubicumque ars ostentatur Veritas abesse 
videtur." 

As appropriateness in the use of words causes beauty, 
so an exaggerated employment of these elements of 
beauty produces the contrary effect of frigidity. Ex- 
cess of ornament causes one to observe the want of 
corresponding ideas, in the same way that (as Arch- 
bishop Whately happily illustrates it) an empty fire- 
place suggests the idea of cold. The infancy of 
grammatical science rendered it necessary for Aris- 
totle to introduce here, as he does also in his " Poetic," 
certain syntactical rules necessary to ensure purity 
of style. b But whatever attention is paid to these 
rules of accuracy or good taste, style will fail of 
producing pleasure, unless it is expressive of feeling 
(ftufyrtzy}), and of moral character (riQizri), and is in 
keeping with the subject-matter. Prose must be 
rhythmical, but not metrical ; but the laws of rhythm 
which he lays down, dependent as they doubtless are 
on that combination of accentuation and quantity which 
is now lost, do not recommend themselves to modern 
ears, which are unable to appreciate his principles of 
modulation. It is remarkable that, whilst we cannot 
admire the cadences of Aristotle, we recognise at once 
with pleasure those recommended by Quinctilian. d 

a Inst. x. 3. b Rhet. iii. 7. c Ibid. iii. 8. 

d See Appendix, p. 333. 



LOOSE AND PERIODIC STYLES. 323 

Aristotle classifies styles under two heads. 3 The 
loose style (s/^swj), like that of Herodotus, in which 
the sentence may be terminated at the conclusion 
of any clause; and the periodic (xareffrgoiffifjiiivq), in 
which the sense and the sentence are completed si- 
multaneously ; of the latter Thucydides furnishes the 
best example. This style, being more artificial, re- 
quires more care, admits of more polish, and is there- 
fore more pleasing. It naturally leads to antithesis 
and alliteration, and an exact balance and equipoise 
between the clauses which were admired and indulged 
in by the ancients, to an extent which modern taste 
would consider an affectation. 

There are two other subjects 5 which it were to be 
wished that Aristotle had not so slightly touched upon. 
The one is the principle of the picturesque in writing 
(irgo offifjbdrw koiziv), which is in fact the fundamental 
principle of vigour and beauty. The other, that of wit 
and humour, a subject on which there is so great a 
difference between ancient and modern taste. It is to 
be regretted that he contented himself with illustrat- 
ing, by only one species of it, that descriptive liveliness 
and vivid dramatic power which places an action before 
us as if it were a picture, or rather as a scene in which 
the actors themselves seem to live and move, which 
enables us to realize the whole to our imaginations, 
makes us forget ourselves and all the distracting ob- 
jects around us, and transports us into that world of 
ideas which people the mind of the poet or the orator. 

a Rhet. iii. 9. b Ibid. iii. 11. 

t 2 



324 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Again, although it is perfectly intelligible that 
hyperbole and puns, and the quaint use of paradox and 
pleasantries by surprise, may not be out of place 
where jest and ridicule are the avowed object, it is to 
be regretted that Aristotle has not left us a deeper 
analysis of the principles which caused them to be 
received with approbation, when used in sober and 
serious earnestness. That such conceits were admired 
is certain, from the profuse employment of them by 
both orators and poets, and by the numerous instances 
of puns which are met with in the Attic tragedies ; 
but although our own Shakspeare sometimes indulges 
in this false embellishment, modern taste shrinks from 
the introduction of a pun in scenes otherwise marked 
by pathos and sublimity. 

Poetry is classed by Aristotle 3 amongst those imita- 
tive arts which produce their imitation by means of 
rhythm, words, and melody. Epic poetry employs 
the first two, whilst dithyrambic, nomic, and dramatic 
poetry, employ all three, either simultaneously or 
separately. Hence the imitative character is essential 
to poetry. The use of metre does not make a poet, 
and metrica compositions, which are merely philoso- 
phical or didactic, are not properly poems. 

As the means of imitation differ, so the objects of 
imitation differ likewise. b Some poets represent men 
better than they are; some worse; others exactly in 
their true character. A third difference consists in 
the mode of imitating, whether by narrative or dra- 
a Poet. c. i. b Ibid. c. ii. c Ibid. c. iii. 



THE IAMBICS SUPERSEDED THE TROCHEE 325 

matic action. These three differences — namely, the 
means, objects, and modes of imitation, furnish the 
principles of classifying the various species of poetry. 

The pleasure derived from poetry a originates, 1st, 
in our natural love of imitation, which causes us to 
delight even in the representation of objects in them- 
selves disagreeable. 2nd, In the gratification of that 
desire to learn new facts which all men, as well as 
philosophers, experience. 

A brief inquiry follows into the history and pro- 
gress of poetry, in which the epic of the old poets 
is compared to tragedy, and their satirical iambics to 
the libellous invective of comedy ; and the origin of 
comedy is traced from the phallic songs, and tragedy 
from the IZdgxpvreg, or leaders, of the dithyrambic 
chorus. The original metre of tragedy, he remarks, 
was trochaic-tetrameter, the lively nature of which 
metre proves that the ludicrous element then pre- 
vailed in this festive ceremonial of the laughter- 
loving god. One cannot conceive the superhuman 
awfulness of JEschylus, or the pathos of Sophocles and 
Euripides, expressed in metre so dionysiac as the 
following : — 

" Jolly mortals, fill your glasses ! let the bumper toast go round." 

Naturally, therefore, when the domain of tragedy 
became that of the passions of pity and terror, the 
dignified simplicity of the iambus succeeded to the 
jovial trochee. 

a Poet. c. iv. 



326 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The rhythm of the iambic metre is that into which 
the well-poised periods of polished conversation na- 
turally fall ; it is equally adapted to express the most 
exalted sentiments and to convey the most familiar 
ideas. Like our own blank verse, it is the natural 
language of dramatic action, and must have been as 
superior to the trochee as blank verse is to the more 
artificial and more musical rhyme of the French 
dramatic writers. 

Such is the resemblance between the epic and 
tragedy, 3 that all the elements of the former are 
contained in the latter ; hence an analysis of tragedy 
will include all the principles of epic poetry. 

Tragedy 6 is defined as " an imitation of a serious 
and perfect action, of suitable extent, tastefully ex- 
pressed, with all the charms of language, each in its 
proper place, in the form of action, not narrative, and 
by exciting pity and terror, causing the purification of 
these passions." It consists of six parts, — decoration, 
music, diction, character, both intellectual and moral, 
and lastly, the plot, which is the most important 
of all. 

The requisites of a skilfully constructed plot are — 

1. Unity, that it should be the imitation of one, 
not of many parallel actions, and should form so 
perfect a whole as not to admit of the subtraction 
or transposition of any of its parts. It may be re- 
marked that this is the only one of the three dra- 
matic unities on which Aristotle insists, although 
a Poet. c. v. b Ibid. c. vL c Ibid. c. viii. 



REQUISITES OF A PLOT. 327 

they have been so constantly defended, especially 
by the French critics on his authority. Once, in- 
deed, he incidentally makes some approach to that 
of time, a when he says that tragedy endeavours to 
confine itself to one revolution of the sun, or a little 
more, whilst of the unity of place he makes no men- 
tion, and many instances may be adduced in which 
the tw r o latter are violated in the few extant dramas 
of the three great tragedians. 

2. The poet should relate probable b rather than 
historical events, and this not only because the ima- 
gination is his especial province, but because truth is 
sometimes more improbable than fiction. 

3. Its extent should be sufficient to include a 
revolution of fortune, but not too long to be easily 
remembered, or to be visible as a whole at one view 
to the mind's eye without confusion. 

The principal and most charming parts of a plot 
are the revolutions and discoveries/ Some poems 
are distinguished by the former, 6 and others by the 
latter — for example, the " Iliad " abounds in revolu- 
tions and changes of fortune : the " Odyssey " is 
nothing else but a series of discoveries. Telemachus 
is discovered to Menelaus, afterwards to Helen ; 
Ulysses to Alcinous, Telemachus to the nurse, the 
swineherd, Penelope, and Laertes/ 

a Poet. c. v. b Ibid. c. ix. c Ibid. c. vii. 

d Ibid. c. vi. e Ibid. c. xxiv. 

f Od. iv. 150; v. 189; ix. 17; xvi. 206; xix. 545; xxi. 212; 
xxiii. 211; xxiv. 375. 



328 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Such are the parts of tragedy,* when divided ac- 
cording to the category of quality. Its divisions as 
to quantity are the prologue, episode, exode, parodos, 
stasima, and commos. On these it is unnecessary 
to dwell as they have already been explained in 
the dramatic portion of this work. 

A systematic and practical analysis b of all the parts 
of tragedy already enumerated, and the proper means 
of exciting the passions of pity and terror, occupy 
the main body of the treatise ; and under the head of 
diction he here, as in the " Rhetoric," supplies the 
want which Greece still continued to feel of a regular 
grammatical system, by the incidental introduction 
of such grammatical rules and principles as related 
to the subject of poetry. 

But a small part of the treatise c is devoted to dis- 
cussing the subject of epic poetry separately; firstly, 
because tragedy contains within itself all the essential 
qualities belonging to epic poetry ; and secondly, be- 
cause tragedy is so superior in extent, in perspicuity, 
and in the power of giving pleasure, not only by its 
literary merit but by the accessory aids of music and 
decoration. Whatever praise is due to Aristotle for 
his systematic treatment of this as of other subjects, 
and for the accuracy of his criticism in matters of 
taste, it cannot be concealed that in his admiration 
for the technical he loses sight of the natural enthu- 
siasm and inspiration of poetry ; that though he could 
discern the principles of beauty, he was not able to 
a Poet. c. xii. b Ibid. c. xiii. — xxii. c Ibid. c. xxiii. — xxvi. 



DECLINE OF GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 329 

realize to himself the inward life and energy of real 
poetic genius. 

It is a sad example of that cold, critical spirit which 
seems to have been at this period creeping over the 
Greek intellect, and chilling the fervour of Athenian 
imagination to find a philosopher affirming, 3 that the 
highest praise which Homer deserves is for his objec- 
tivity, and that he will be thought " divine," not be- 
cause of the inspiration of the poetry, but because 
he preserved the unity of his plot by confining his 
poem to one part only of the Trojan war. 

With Aristotle the era of Greek classical literature 
may be considered as having arrived at its close. 
Poetry had been naturalized at Athens by the patron- 
age and protection of Pisistratus. The drama had 
risen, flourished, and decayed during the century of 
Athenian liberty. History had embalmed the ex- 
ploits of Greek heroism, and the struggles for free- 
dom and independence which were now no more. 
Oratory had arrived at maturity, and died a natural 
death when the circumstances of the times were no 
longer such as to nurture and encourage it. The 
most powerful intellects had been devoted to philo- 
sophical investigations, and had recommended their 
researches to the popular mind by the embellish- 
ments of taste and genius, and the refinements of 
literary skill. . The vast mass of materials which his 
predecessors had collected, Aristotle had digested, 
arranged, and systematized. 

a Poet. c. xxiv. 



330 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Already, in his time, the enthusiasm of genius 
had become cold, and was rapidly being superseded 
by that spirit which can analyze the principles of art 
and pass a judgment upon them, but cannot produce 
the effects which it professes to criticize. The age 
which succeeded that of Aristotle, and on the con- 
fines of which he stands, was one of science rather 
than of literature ; and of imitation rather than 
of original genius. The style of Theophrastus, a the 
pupil and successor of Aristotle, was graceful and 
eloquent, 5 but the little that remains of his numerous 
works, does not give any high idea of their value, 
or of any other ability except shrewdness in the 
discrimination of character. 

From the dead level of this uninteresting plain 
there arise two lofty peaks, whose summits catch 
the last glowing tints and setting rays of Greek 
genius and imagination. The wit and wisdom of 
Menander, the pupil of Theophrastus, live in a few 
short fragments; are reflected in the imitations of 
Lucian, and show what was the spirit of the new 
comedy, of which he was the most distinguished 
poet, by the materials which his plays furnished to 
those of Terence. Theocritus, of Syracuse/ delights 
us with the Doric simplicity of his native bucolic 
poetry; his truthful pictures of Sicilian rural life. 

Lastly, legendary story connects the expiring effort 
of Greek literature, and the final departure for ever 

a b.c. 321. b Quinct. Inst. xi. 1. c B.C. 312— 291. 

o b.c. 269—214. 



LEGEND OF PHILEMON. 331 

of the divine spirit of poetry, with the death of the 
comic poet, Philemon, 8 and the fall of Athens. 
The city and home of the Muses had surrendered to 
Antigonus, and the aged Philemon, now in his 
ninetieth year, was on his death-bed. He lifted 
up his eyes from his last comedy, which he was just 
finishing, and saw nine maidens leaving the room. 
They were the Muses. Philemon completed the 
concluding scene, and immediately expired. 5 

These are bright exceptions; but amongst their 
contemporaries and successors, we look in vain for 
the vigorous thought, the divine wisdom, the fervid 
eloquence, the graceful wit, the brilliant genius 
which characterize classical antiquity. 

a b.c. 262. b Suidas. 



APPENDIX. 



Vol. ii. page 322, line 28. 

There are few questions connected with the Greek 
language and literature more difficult of solution 
than that of accentuation. The accents which we 
now have doubtless did not exist in classical times ; 
but nevertheless, to a certain extent, the principles 
of pronunciation did exist, of which they are the signs 
and symbols. 

In prose as well as in poetry, in familiar conversa- 
tion as well as in formal oratory, the ancient Greeks 
pronounced both according to accent and quantity. 
The difficulty of determining the extent to which 
they combined these two conditions is principally due 
to the utter impossibility of forming an adequate 
conception of the exquisitely delicate sensibility 
which the Athenian ear possessed ; but this difficulty 
has been increased, firstly, by the vague and indeter- 
minate use which we are accustomed to make of 
the term accentuation ; secondly, by the fact that, in 
the English language, there exists no method of 
marking that inflexion of the voice which the Greek 



334 DIFFERENT SENSES OF THE WORD ACCENT. 

accents are designed to point out. One popular 
sense in which the word accent is used, is to denote 
the modulation peculiar to the language of the 
country to which the speaker belongs, and which 
becomes especially discernible when he speaks a 
foreign language. Thus we say that a person 
speaks with a French, Irish, Scotch, or, generally a 
foreign accent. Here, then, the word accent implies 
a general mixture of time, intonation, and pronun- 
ciation of letters ; that certain syllables are unusually 
dwelt upon, or slurred over, the voice habitually 
raised or lowered in a way to which our ear is not 
accustomed ; vowels pronounced as close sounds, which 
we are in the habit of considering open, and the 
contrary. 

Again, we use the word accent to denote the 
syllable which is pronouced with emphasis, whilst the 
other syllables are pronounced equably and without 
any distinction. We ask, for example, whether we 
ought to say corollary, or corollary. In this case, 
accent is evidently equivalent to stress, or what the 
writers on prosody call ictus. 

Thirdly, accent is used to imply the sentimental 
expression which is given to words, according to the 
passion which we wish to exhibit. We speak, for 
example, of accents of pity, love, gentleness, rage, 
and so forth. 

Fourthly, in music, accent is used to point out 
that a note is to be executed, either vocally or instru- 
mentally, with a decided energetic expression. 



TIME AND PITCH. 335 

Lastly, in English poetry, we apply the word 
accent to point out the syllables in the verse on 
which the stress is laid, and, therefore, it is the sign 
of quantity, so far as we can be said to have any 
rules of quantity at all. 

Now, in not one of these senses is the word accent 
used, when applied to the ancient Greek language. 
The two principles to which the Greeks attended in 
pronunciation, were time and pitch ; we do not mark 
pitch of voice at all, but only time and emphasis, 
and these are with us identical, for we have no idea 
of time, unless emphasis accompanies it. Now Time 
is equivalent to Quantity, Accent is that affection of 
the voice which gives a musical note, or vocal sound 
its proper pitch, whether high or low, and the Greek 
accents are external visible signs, which point out 
when the vocal intonation is to be high or sharp, and 
when low or grave. 

In time, or quantity, only two species were re- 
cognized by the ancients ; the one double of the 
other in duration. The time in which a short 
syllable was supposed to be pronounced, was called a 
mora; that in which a long one, two morce. This 
difference of time took place, first, in the case of the 
long vowels, which were considered as equivalent 
to two short ones, for example n = eg, and a — oo, and 
the syllable was then said to be long by nature. 
Secondly, when a short vowel was followed by two 
or more consonants, as rirvfju^ott, the vowel contained 
in such a syllable was called long by position. There 



336 ENGLISH INTONATION. 

can be no doubt that, in such a case, time was taken to 
pronounce the consonants distinctly and separately 
as in the modern Italian bel-la, quel-la, &c. 

This will illustrate the modern confusion of emphasis 
with time, and the utter absence of such rules of time 
or quantity in English, as regulated Greek poetry. 
In the word " imprisonment," for example, the penul- 
timate syllable, although the vowel precedes two 
consonants very difficult of utterance together, is 
pronounced short, and the antepenultimate is made 
equivalent to a long syllable, and is enunciated with 
the stress or emphasis. 

As, however, a real distinction is to be drawn be- 
tween time or prosodial quantity, and the elevation or 
depression of the voice ; and as it is plain that they 
are two properties of vocal utterance, perfectly con- 
sistent with one another, it is easy to imagine that 
well-tuned ears, and a delicate vocal organization 
could produce both effects simultaneously, although 
it is difficult to realize the nicety and delicacy with 
which the Greeks, in their pronunciation, paid atten- 
tion to both rules at one and the same time. 

The English mode of pronunciation is remarkably 
destitute of varied intonation. Our equable mode of 
talking constitutes one of the difficulties which we 
experience, more, perhaps, than other nations, of 
speaking foreign languages like the natives them- 
selves. Whoever hears a modern Greek speak, can- 
not but be sensible of the remarkable intonation of 
voice with which he gives reality and expression 



INTONATION OF MODERN GREEKS. 337 

to every accentual mark, without error, and without 
difficulty. The tone of utterance falls upon the ear 
with a peculiarly pleasing and musical cadence. The 
neglect of that rhythm and quantity which are essential 
to Greek poetry, is indeed offensive to a classical 
taste ; the more so, as in Greek prose and poetry we, 
being ignorant of the true pronunciation, have nothing 
else but these to gratify the ear. But the modern 
Greeks are improving in this respect ; it is not now 
unusual to hear one who has received a liberal educa- 
tion, read the ancient classical authors of his native 
land in such a manner as to show that he can com- 
bine, to a certain extent, the melodious cadence of 
intonation with the majestic march or lively step of 
metre and prosody. 

As it is clear that all the rhythmical beauty and 
melodious cadence of verse would be lost if quantity 
were neglected, so it is equally certain that both in 
writing and speaking, quantity as well as accent was 
rigidly regarded. The passage of Aristotle alluded to 
in the text is a proof of this assertion. In it he states 
that the foot called the Pgean, which consists of four 
syllables, one of which is long, and three short, is 
peculiarly suitable to the rhythm of prose composition. 
He adds, that if the first of the four syllables be long, 
it is suitable to the commencement of a sentence ; if 
the last, its cadence is fit for the termination. On 
the other hand, there is abundant evidence that the 
Athenian ear was acutely sensitive to the accentuation 
of every syllable. No intonation was too unimportant 

VOL. II. z 



338 ACCENT DETERMINED SIGNIFICATION. 

to escape notice ; it could discover the slightest devia- 
tion from the recognised and established rules. 

Frequently the accent determined the different 
senses in which the same word might be used. Ovzovv, 
for example, as is well known, is affirmative, or ne- 
gative, according as it is accentuated on the ultimate 
or penultimate syllable. And this is the case, not 
because accentuation, i.e., intonation of voice could 
destroy the negative force of the ov, but because the 
former accentuation showed that it was to be used 
interrogatively, the latter indicatively, a difference 
naturally exhibited by the intonation of the voice, 
and, therefore, capable of being denoted by accentua- 
tion. Hence, therefore, as a negative used interro- 
gatively it became equivalent to an affirmative. 

Again, we have another example in the following 
anecdote, which tradition has handed down to us. 
When Demosthenes, in his oration on the Crown, 
exclaimed, " Do you think that iEschines is Alex- 
ander's hireling ((jburOcorog) or his guest-friend ?" he is 
said to have pronounced the word as if it had been 
accentuated (juiaQoorog, instead of (jbtaOoorog. One of his 
auditors, in order to correct his mispronunciation, 
cried out (juicdcoTog. The orator immediately, with 
great shrewdness and tact, took it as an answer to 
his question, and, turning to his adversary, triumphantly 
exclaimed, " You hear what they say of you." This 
anecdote shows how important accentuation was, and 
how sensitive the Attic ear was in judging of the 
correct and proper use of it. 



INVENTION OF ACCENTS. 339 

It is difficult to fix for certain the period at which 
the accents which we now have came into use. Their 
object undoubtedly was, when the Greek language 
began to decline, and when there w r as reason to fear 
that the true pronunciation would be gradually yet 
rapidly forgotten, to fix and perpetuate, if possible, the 
beauful cadences and musical intonations, of which it 
was capable. Quantity spoke for itself, the rules of 
prosody could be accurately laid down. Intonation 
was beyond the reach of such means, it could only 
be exhibited by the imperfect method of outward 
symbols. 

With this view, it was believed by Voss, that a 
rude system was invented by Aristophanes, the gram- 
marian, who flourished about B.C. 264, in the reigns of 
the Ptolemies, IV. and V., but that these accents 
were not the same which are in use now. The present 
system of accentuation was not completed and per- 
fected until some time in the tenth century of the 
Christian era. 



z 2 



INDEX. 



Abaris, sacerdotal poet, a Hyperborean; 
tradition of, i. 216. 

Academic school, the, founded by Plato, 
teachers of, ii. 207. 

Academy the, school of Plato, ii. 207, 
271. 

Achaeus, tragic writer, 283 ; his charac- 
ter, i. 340. 

Acharnians, the, comedy of Aristopha- 
nes, analysis of, earliest of his plays 
extant ; when exhibited against Peri- 
cles ; Acharnae, why selected as scene 
of, ii. 34 ; peace contrasted with war 
in, ii. 35. 

Achilles, actions of, in Iliad, i. 62 ; con- 
sistency in character of, i. 79. 

Actors in Greek tragedy support moTe 
than one part, i. 362 ; Muller's ar- 
rangement of parts for ; number of, 
in scene, i. 363 ; skill of poet in ar- 
rangement of parts for, i. 364. 

Acusilaus, quasi historian, used Ionic 
dialect, i. 221 ; his works, Suidas not 
acquainted with, i. 222. 

Adonis, see Linus. 

JEolian lyric poetry, i. 159 ; influence 
of Asia upon, measures and dialect 
of, character of, i. 160, 169. 

.^Eolians, a mixed race, i. 11 ; settle- 
ment of, in Troad, i. 93 ; influence 
of, i. 95. 

JEschines, Cicero's characteristic of his 
style, ii. 131 ; his conduct compared 
with that of Demosthenes, ii. 139; 
defeat on oration for the Crown ; ex- 
ile ; his opinion of Demosthenes' de- 
livery, ii. 143 ; neglected by Cicero ; 
not inferior intellectually to Demo- 
sthenes ; native of Attica ; attack on 
family of, by Demosthenes, its dis- 
tinction ; his early life, ii. 144 ; am- 
bassador to King of Macedon ; dele- 
gate to Amphictyons; defeat by De- 
VOL. II. 



mosthenes ; founds school at Rhodes ; 
death ; orations, three only extant, 
ii. 145. 
^Eschylus, compared with Sophocles, i. 
305 ; translation from, i. 302 ; seldom 
used the prologue, i. 331 ; examples 
of use of eccyclema from tragedies of, 
i, 353 ; his contest with Chcerilus 
and Pratinas, i. 283 ; belief in purifi- 
cation from sin ; son of Euphorion of 
Eleusis; father engaged in worship 
of Demeter, i. 287 ; his vision of Dio- 
nysus ; contends for prize ; victori- 
ous; vanquished by Sophocles; re- 
tires to court of Hiero ; his religion ; 
politics, i. 288 ; warrior as well as 
poet, i. 289 ; his death, tomb, epi- 
taph ; his style, i. 290 ; terror cha- 
racteristic of tragedies of, i. 291 ; his 
language ; Muller's simile, i. 292 ; 
number of his tragedies ; prizes ; his 
satiric dramas ; elegies; extant works, 
i. 294 ; complete trilogy ; supports 
authority of the Areopagus, i. 295 ; his 
descriptive accuracy, ii. 9; less ro- 
mantic than Herodotus ; his impar- 
tiality, ii. 13 ; Aristophanes' opinion 
of, ii. 44. 
yEsop, fables of, eastern, i. 149 ; place 
in Greek literature ; fables attributed 
to ; his identity ; history, i. 150. 
Agamemnon, actionsof, in Iliad, i. 62 : 
consistency in character of, i. 79 ; 
tragedy of, by iEschylus, i. 295 ; use 
of eccyclema in, i. 353 ; what the 
orchestra represented in ; statue of 
Zeus on thymele, i. 355 ; choruses 
in, j. 361. 
Agathon, tragic writer, i. 284 , his his- 
tory, i. 341. 
Agias of Trcezen, cyclic poet, i. 136. 
Agriculture, as practised in Homeric 
age, i. 120 ; taught by Hesiod, i. 127. 
z 3 



342 



INDEX. 



Agriculturist, use of astronomy to, i. 115. 

Air, original element in philosophy of 
Anaximenes, i. 244. 

Ajax, represented by Homer as Attic, i. 
33 ; his actions in Iliad, i. 63 ; con- 
sistency in character of, i. 80 ; cha- 
racter of, by Sophocles, i. 314 ; 
scenery in tragedy of, i. 347 ; exam- 
ples of eccyclema in, i. 353. 

Alcasus, lyric poet ; his life, i. 173 ; 
poems; model to Horace, i. 174 — 
177; party poems, i. 175; leaves 
shield on field of battle, i. 210- 

Alcestis, play of Euripides, i. 336 ; 
translation from, by Anstice, i. 
339. 

Alcibiades, held up to odium, in cha- 
racter of Paris, by Euripides, i. 374 ; 
procures enactment against licence of 
comic poets, ii. 22 ; why he advo- 
cated Sicilian expedition, ii. 46 ; 
eloquence of, celebrated by Cicero, 
ii. Ill ; character of, ii. 112 ; pupil 
of Socrates, ii. 188 ; Socrates' love 
for, ii. 190. 

Alcman, lyric poet, i. 168 ; of Sardis ; 
his life and reputation, i. 171 ; his 
works, i. 172. 

Alexander the Great, pupil of Aristotle, 
influence of master upon ; builds the 
Nymphaeumfor Aristotle, his instruc- 
tions to, ii. 277. 

Alphabet, the, whence derived; pho- 
netic, i. 4 ; Semitic, introduced by 
Cadmus, i. 13 ; number of letters in ; 
at first pictorial, i. 14 ; Hebrew and 
Greek, comparison of, i. 15 ; how long 
before increased, i. 19. 

Amazons, encampment of, why placed 
by iEschylus on eastern side of 
Areopagus, i. 372. 

Anabasis, the, of Xenophon, when writ- 
ten, ii. 94 ; spirit of, ii. 100. 

Anacreon, odes of, so called ; ofTeos, 
his character ; contrast to Mimner- 
mus, i. 188 ; legend of; epitaph by 
Simonides ; translation of, from An- 
thology, i. 189. 

Analysis, logical, basis of philosophy of 
Eleatic school, i. 256. 

Anaxagoras, instructor of Euripides in 
physics, i. 324 ; contemporary with, 
ii. 153 ; native of Clazomenae ; resides 
at Athens ; Pericles and Euripides 
his disciples ; devotion to philosophi- 
cal investigation ; accused of impiety ; 
imprisoned ; flies to Lampsacus ; dies 
there ; annual feast in honour of; his 



astronomical attainments, ii. 155 ; his 
physical theory, fundamental princi- 
ples of, terms employed in, ii. 156, 
inconsistency of ; distinction respect- 
ing mind ; theory of sensation, of the 
mode in which knowledge is attained, 
ii. 157 ; deeply impressed with hu- 
man ignorance ; his conclusions gene- 
rally logical ; respect of Aristotle and 
Cicero for ; first introduced study of 
philosophy into Athens ; approach to 
belief in First Cause ; beauty of style, 
ii. 158. 

Anaximander of Miletus, not pupil of 
Thales ; his philosophy, i. 243. 

Anaximenes of Miletus, his philoso- 
phy ; its resemblance to that of 
Thales, i. 244. 

Andocides, four of his speeches among 
the earliest extant ; of noble family ; 
native of Athens ; politics oligarchical; 
accused with Alcibiades ; defence ex- 
tant ; date of; titles and dates of 
their other orations, ii. 127 ; his trou- 
bles ; banishment from Athens ; dies 
in exile ; character of orations, ii. 
128. 

Andromache, consistency in character 
of, i. 81 ; play of, i. 335. 

Anstice, translations by, i. 24, 265, 
302, 303, 304, 311, 338, 339. 

Anthesteria, Dionysiac festival of, when 
celebrated ; why so called ; what 
plays exhibited at, i. 357. 

Anthologia, epigram on Aristophanes 
preserved in, ii. 32. 

Antigone, choruses in, illustrate union 
of Iacchic and Dionysiac worship ; 
Sophocles' drama of, i. 278 ; when 
first presented, i. 307 ; character of, i. 
314 ; analysis of, i. 316; character of, 
in Euripides, i. 328 ; example of use 
of eccyclema in, i. 353. 

Antiphon, his fifteen speeches among 
the earliest extant ; native of Rham- 
nus ; father a sophist ; rather a 
teacher of rhetoric than orator, ii. 
125 ; opposed to sophists ; Thucy- 
dides pupil of ; assists establishment 
of the Four Hundred ; his accusation, 
defence, death ; his orations— some 
written for clients ; first who received 
fee for, ii. 126 ; his style ; parent of 
practical oratory, ii. 127. 

Antisthenes, an Athenian ; founds 
school of philosophy ; his parent- 
age ; pupil of Gorgias and Socrates ; 
fought at Tanagra ; his death ; Cynic 



INDEX. 



343 



school founded by him ; origin of the 
designation ; his principles opposed to 
those of Cyrenaic school, ii. 214 ; how 
far the result of circumstances ; his 
appearance and character ; sarcasm 
of Socrates on ; Diogenes only faith- 
ful disciple of; his style, ii. 215 ; his 
extant works ; a moral reformer ; 
philosophy consequently ethical ; his 
belief in one God ; his logic ; unpo- 
pularity of his teaching, ii. 216; doc- 
trine of independence ; adopts Her- 
cules as symbolical of his idea of 
virtue, ii. 217. 

Aphrodite, actions of, in Iliad ; cestus 
of, i. 65. 

Apollo, hymns to, when sung ; the 
Sun-god, i. 23 ; worshipped in songs, 
i. 27 ; worship of foreign origin, i. 30 ; 
actions of, in Iliad, i. 65 ; in Odys- 
sey, i. 69 ; feast in honour of, i. 72 ; 
pasan, hymn sung in honour of, i. 
162 ; principal god of Dorians ; only 
worshipped by Hellenes, not Pelas- 
gic, i. 165 ; medium of communica- 
tion between Zeus and men ; son of 
Zeus ; his weapons ; his epithets, i. 
166 ; male development of idea of 
light ; attributes explained ; worship 
succeeded that of Dionysius ; symbol- 
ized heavenly causes of production, 
i. 167; Abaris' worshipping of; re- 
gions beyond Caucasus under pro- 
tection of, i. 216; same as Orus, i. 
275. 

Apology of Socrates, Xenophon's, ii. 
104. 

Archedice, daughter of Hippias, epi- 
taph on, by Simonides, i. 191. 

Archilochus, elegiac poet ; inventor of 
iambic verse, i. 138 ; date of, i. 141 ; 
poetry symposaic, i. 142 ; an Ionian 
leader of colony to Thasos ; ancestors 
priests of Demeter, i. 146 ; held in 
admiration by Greeks and Romans ; 
used various metres ; inventor of 
epode, i. 147. 

Arctinus of Miletus, cyclic poet, i. 136. 

Areopagus, court of, how changed by 
Ephialtes ; defended by iEschylus in 
Eumenides, i. 300. 

Arion, iyric poet of Lesbos ; legend of, 
told by Herodotus, i. 172. 

Aristagoras, shows map of Ionia to 
Cieomenes, i. 224. 

Aristarchus of Tegea, tragic writer, i. 
283 ; his alterations in the drama, i. 
314. 



Aristides, exploits of, extolled by 2Es- 
chylus, i. 301. 

Aristippus, native of Cyrene ; founds 
Cyrenaic school of philosophy, ii. 206 ; 
resides at court of Dionysius ; inti- 
macy with Lai's ; probable date of 
birth ; leisure consequence of wealth, 
ii. 208 ; system of, marked by self-in- 
dulgence; becomes disciple of Socra- 
tes; consequences of his love of 
pleasure ; lives in exile ; flatterer of 
Dionysius; left no writings; lists of, 
supposed by Ritter to be spurious ; 
epistles attributed to him proved by 
JBentley to be forgeries, i. 209 ; founds 
Cyrenaic school, ii. 210 ; a degenerate 
disciple of Socrates, ii. 210 ; his doc- 
trine, that man must not be slave of 
pleasure, ii. 212. 

Aristophanes, speaks of iEsop, i. 150; 
style of iEschylus condemned by ; 
his criticism on Euripides, i. 330; his 
attack on, in Frogs, i. 333 ; not be- 
yond truth in his delineations of Athe- 
nian society, ii. 13 ; comedies of, only 
extant specimens of old comedy ; men- 
tion of Magnes in Knights, ii. 26 ; 
of Cratinus ; vanquished by Cratinus, 
ii. 28 ; his antagonism with Eupolis, 
retort against, in Clouds, ii. 29 ; no- 
tice of Crates, ii. 30 ; native of Cyda- 
thene ; time of birth uncertain ; his 
first comedy, when exhibited ; his 
property in iEgina; pupil of Prodi- 
cus ; action brought against, by Cleon; 
olive crown, ii. 31; epigram upon; 
social qualities, ii. 32; obtains se- 
cond prize ; views of education ; of 
the old school, ii. 33 ; the Acharnians, 
ii. 34 ; the Knights gains first prize, 
analysis of, ii. 35 ; the. Clouds, most 
important of all comedies of, analysis 
of, ii. 37 ; satire on Socrates not vin- 
dictive, ii. 40 ; the Wasps, simplicity 
of plot, object of, model for Les Plai- 
deurs of Racine, ii. 41 ; Lysistrata ; 
Thesmophoriazusae, object of, analysis 
of, ii. 42 ; Ecclesiazusas, like Lysis- 
trata, object of, ii. 43 ; Progs, conti- 
nuation of attack on Euripides in Thes- 
mophoriazusae, ii. 44 ; allusion to Si- 
cilian expedition, ii. 45 ; Plutus the 
specimen of middle comedy, ii. 46 ; 
analysis of; Clinton's chronological 
arrangement of comedies of, ii. 47 ; 
character of popular leaders described 
by, ii. 115 ; his attack on Socrates, ii. 
180 ; on Sophocles, ii. 189. 
Z 4 



344 



INDEX. 



Aristophanes of Byzantium, arranges 
Dialogues of Plato in trilogies, ii. 228. 

Aristotle, closes second period of Greek 
classical literature, i. 2 ; rejects many 
poems ascribed to Homer, i. 38 ; ad- 
miration of unity of plot in works 
of Homer justified, i. 74 ; speaks of 
iEsop, i. 150 ; his account of philoso- 
phy of Heraclitus, i. 246 ; of Pytha- 
goras, i. 253 ; co-ordinate series of, 
how misunderstood by Ritter, i. 254 ; 
opinion of, on connexion of dialogue 
with chorus in drama, i. 273 ; notices 
charge of impiety against iEschylus, 
i. 288 ; observations on realization of 
character in poetry, i. 313; criticism 
on Euripides, i. 331 ; account of origin 
of Greek comedy, ii. 15 ; speeches in 
history of Thucydides tried by rules of, 
ii. 85 ; his care to uphold importance 
of logical deduction ; his rules in. rheto- 
ric ; estimate of knowledge necessary 
for an orator ; his respect for Anaxago- 
ras.ii. 158; useof his writings in elicit- 
ing character of philosophy of Socrates, 
ii. 201 ; refutation of Socratic paradox, 
ii. 206 ; founder of Peripatetic school, 
ii. 207 ; refers constantly to dialogues 
of Plato to elucidate his doctrines; 
follows Plato in systematizing previ- 
ous philosophical discoveries, ii. 225 ; 
accounts of, uncertain and contra- 
dictory; born at Stagira ; his father 
Nicomachus ; his profession and 
works ; early acquaintance with 
Philip King of Macedon ; left an 
orphan; fortune ample; visits Athens 
to prosecute his studies, ii. 274 ; his 
zeal in study; commendation of 
Plato ; epithets applied to, ii. 276; re- 
spect of, towards Plato ; returns from 
Athens; contest with Socrates, ii. 276; 
tutor to Alexander ; influence of, 
upon; returns to Athens after acces- 
sion of Alexander, ii. 277; teaches in 
the Lyceum ; his school, why styled 
the Peripatetic ; his lectures delivered 
in regular courses; estrangement from 
Alexander, ii. 278 ; his industry; num- 
ber of works ; works of, extant ; esti- 
mation of, by Diogenes ; munificence 
of Alexander to ; value of his History 
of Animals daily more appreciated ; 
charge of impiety brought against, 
ii. 279 ; escapes to Chalcis ; con- 
demned to death by Areopagus ; dies 
the year after ; his successor, how ap- 
pointed ; his appearance and charac- 



ter ; comparison of, with Plato ; emi- 
nently practical, ii. 281 ; teaching 
argumentation ; no dramatic power ; 
systematic arrangement of his works ; 
his style, ii. 282 ; a critic, not an ar- 
tist ; Ritter's opinion of; has not 
grace of Plato, ii. 283 ; partly result 
of change in language and rhetoric in 
Athens ; nothing left for, but analy- 
sis ; conciseness of style ; Cicero's 
opinion upon, ii. 284 ; his temper ; 
learning destructive of self-confidence, 
ii. 285 ; deference to authority ; prac- 
tical nature of his philosophy ; limited 
ideas of God ; inferiority to Plato, ii. 
286 ; his highest idea of the soul, 
does not imply personal identity ; di- 
vision of his writings ; the esoteric 
only remain ; explanation of terms by 
Cicero incorrect, the probable dis- 
tinction, ii. 287 ; to whom addressed; 
extent of his erudition; his habit of 
induction, ii. 288 ; prefers the actual 
to the ideal ; want of high ideal 
standard felt in his philosophy ; de- 
nial of ideal standard a deprivation of 
aid to moral improvement, ii. 289 ; 
contrast between his philosophy and 
that of Plato ; investigation of sci- 
ence, consequent on commencing with 
the external and sensible, his method, 
ii. 290 ; example of critical spirit of; 
era of Greek classical literature closes 
with ; materials collected by his pre- 
decessors, collected and arranged by 
him, ii. 329 ; age succeeding that of 
science, ii. 330. 

Aristotle, the Logic of, art of reasoning 
fully developed in ; his Organon ; the 
Categories ; his principle of classifi- 
cation, ii. 292 ; their number ; aids to 
systematic thought ; of the proposi- 
tion ; of the syllogism in Analytics ; 
of arguments of probability ; the To- 
pics, ii. 293 ; of the investigation of 
fallacies, ii. 294. 

, the Metaphysics of, closely 

connected with logic ; titles given to, 
by him ; notices of, found wherever 
nature of Divinity is discussed ; title 
of treatises on, arbitrary ; perception, 
origin of knowledge, ii. 294 ; science, 
the result of; induction and investi- 
gation ; difference between Platonic 
and Aristotelian theory ; idea of mat- 
ter in, negative, twofold, ii. 295, im- 
plies potentiality ; form, actuality ; 
motion, transition from one to the 



INDEX. 



345 



other ; cause of motion ; the final 
cause; all nature indicates design, ii. 
296 ; the good, the end to which it is 
directed ; his notion of the Deity ; ex- 
planation of terms energy and ente- 
lechy ; Ritter's opinion of ; God, the 
great First Cause, ii. 297 ; the unity 
of; the governing principle ; the high- 
est object of contemplation ; doubtful 
whether his belief is theism or pan- 
theism, ii. 298. 
Aristotle, the Physics of; changeable na- 
ture of subject ; psychology, part of 
physiology, ii. 298 ; body subservient 
to soul ; existence of soul dependent 
upon it ; definition of the soul, ii. 299 ; 
tables of division of the soul, formed 
from Xicomachean Ethics ; sensation 
and its consequences, ii. 300 ; system 
of universe, derived from theory of 
motion ; the mundane system ; the 
four elements ; theory of progression, 
ii. 301. 

, the Ethics of; basis of all sound 
political and moral philosophy,ii. 302 ; 
the Nicomachean, the Eudemean ; 
how far identical ; latter probably 
compiled by Eudemus ; the great 
Ethics, outline of ; Nicomachean ; 
moral science ; subdivision of politics ; 
subdivision threefold ; the groundwork 
of others ; science of individual good, 
ii. 303 ; entirely practical ; founda- 
tion in psychological system ; virtue, 
the law of human nature, happiness, 
the end of existence, ii. 304 ; both at- 
tainable, otherwise moral instruction 
useless ; man, a free agent, therefore 
responsible ; virtue, a habit ; this, 
relative, ii. 305 ; to internal constitu- 
tion and external circumstances ; of 
this, each man his own judge ; this 
science not therefore exact; of the 
virtues or mean states ; magnificence ; 
the social qualities ; justice, ii. 306 ; 
friendship, the Greek love of; high 
estimation of, in this science; moral 
and intellectual virtues inseparable in 
existence, treated separately, ii. 307 ; 
their action on each other ; heroic vir- 
tue unattainable ; its opposite brutality 
not found in normal state of man ; 
pleasure, its position in other moral 
systems, ii. 308 ; in that of Plato ; 
approved by Aristotle ; pleasure ac- 
tive ; true and false pleasures ; its 
place in morals ; happiness, an energy 
of the soul ; contemplation the highest 



kind, ii. 309 ; why so much import- 
ance given in system to formation of 
moral character ; this science, how 
connected with politics, ii. 310 ; edu- 
cation, the moral outline of the body 
politic ; politics, therefore, necessarily 
systematized, ii. 311. 

Aristotle, the Economics of, science of 
social life ; link between the indi- 
vidual and the state ; deals with do- 
mestic relations ; slavery, a natural 
dispensation, ii. 312 ; freedom, con- 
dition of Hellenic birth ; domestic 
relations, analogous to political; trea- 
tise on, in two books ; second, not 
genuine, ii. 313. 

, the Politics of, definition of a 

state, its objects and result ; two ob- 
jects proposed in, ii. 313 ; three forms 
of government ; the degenerate forms 
of; timocraey, definition of, ii. 314; 
political right of property, basis of 
constitutions of Solon and Servius 
Tullius ; tendency towards monarchi- 
cal institutions ; tyranny, the result 
of anarchy, ii. 315 ; reasons for mon- 
archical bias, ii. 316 ; what consti- 
tution attainable ; arrangements op- 
posed to those of Plato ; inequality 
of property desirable, ii. 317 ; great 
duty of state education ; at what age 
to commence ; what to consist in, 
ii. 318. 

, the Rhetoric of, complete cycle 

of his works ; character of, as taught 
in his time ; object, to prove real use 
had been lost sight of ; its systematic 
form ; definition of; consists of 
three parts ; persuasion, the most 
important ; three-fourths of treatise 
occupied by, ii. 319 ; three modes of ; 
three species of argumentative proof; 
of the passions and circumstances 
incident to different periods of life ; 
the common places of rhetoric,ii. 320; 
two modes of argument ; of style; of 
perspicuity ; dignity and beauty not 
sacrificed to ; of metaphors ; of sound, 
ii. 321 ; of art; of excess of orna- 
ment ; Whately's illustration ; three 
necessities of style ; prose, rhythmical, 
but not metrical ; laws of, recom- 
mended in, not perceptible ; compared 
with those of Quinctihan, ii. 322 ; 
style, classified under two heads. 
Thucydides ; example of periodic ; 
of the picturesque in ; one species 
only of wit illustrated in, ii. 323 ; 



346 



INDEX. 



difference between ancient and mo- 
dern taste respecting, ii. 324. 
Aristotle, the Poetics of, imitative charac- 
ter essential to poetry ; different form 
of ; different means of, ii. 324 ; plea- 
sure derived from poetry twofold ; 
history and progress of poetry ; origin 
of comedy and tragedy ; metres used 
in, ii. 325 ; of the iambic and tro- 
chaic ; resemblance between tragedy 
and the epic ; definition of tragedy, 
division of ; the plot ; unity, ii. 326 ; 
the probable; extent of; revolution 
and discovery in, ii. 327 ; tragedy, 
divisions of, as to quantity ; analysis 
of, occupies main body of treatise ; 
grammatical rules introduced ; why 
only a small part devoted to epic, 
ii. 328. 
rithmetic 
age, i. 117. 
Art, in Homeric age, i. 117 ; developed 
from poetry, i. 118 ; useful ; of war, 
i. 120; progress of; dramatic re- 
presentations, how changed by, i. 
359. 
Art, when at its perfection in Athens, 

ii. 176. 
Ascra, on mountains of Bceotia, i. 125 ; 
climate of, i. 126 ; Hesiod watched 
his father's flocks there, i. 133. 
Aste excludes the Apology and Crito 

from works of Plato, ii. 229. 
Astronomy, in Homeric age ; of Job, 
i. 113 ; use of, i. 115; solar eclipses 
calculated by Thales ; calendar of 
Athenians corrected by Solon, i. 211; 
of Thales, i. 242. 
Athenaeus preserves titles of twenty- 
six comedies of Epicharmus, ii. 17 ; 
fragments of history of Ctesias, ii. 
105. 
Athene, actions of, in Iliad, i. 62 ; in 
Odyssey, i. 67 ; her confidence in des- 
tiny, i. 99. 
Athenians, a Pelasgic race, i. 18. 
Athenian citizen, the, character of ; ha- 
bits of ; favourable to development of 
oratory, ii. 113 ; selfishness of, ii. 
116; ophthalmia common among; 
reference to, in Knights, ii. 117 ; how 
influenced by orators, ii. 118 ; appre- 
ciation of oratory by, ii. 119 ; politics, 
amusement of; ear of, highly culti- 
vated, ii. 120 ; importance of oratory 
to advancement of, ii. 122. 
Athens, the home of philosophy, i. 2; 
mother city of Smyrna, i. 32 ; calendar 



of, corrected by Solon; Solon a native 
of, i. 21 1 ; era of tragedy and political 
greatness synchronous, i. 283. 
Athens, neighbourhood of, described in 
(Edipus Coloneus ; fidelity of descrip- 
tion, ii. 10 ; plague at, description of, 
by Thucydides, ii. 87 ; metropolis of 
Greek literature ; science transferred 
from provinces to, ii. 171 ; centre 
of Greek national activity ; literary 
superiority of, established before Per- 
sian war ; first prose literature of, 
why historical, ii. 172 ; nursing mo- 
ther of philosophy, ii. 173 ; art, when 
at greatest perfection at ; example of, 
aesthetic perfection and moral pollu- 
tion, ii. 176; moral condition of, ii. 
177. 
Atmosphere, of Greece ; its effect on 
religion ; Homer's manner of de- 
scribing ; Cicero's opinion of its effect 
on Attic mind, i. 22 ; effect on mental 
character of inhabitants of Bceotia, 
i. 125. 
Atonement for blood-guilt, i. 365. 
Aulus Gellius, his history written in 
time of Nero ; gives ages of Hellani- 
cus, Herodotus and Thucydides at 
commencement of Peloponnesian war, 
ii. 56. 

Bacchus, mysteries of Demeter and 
Dionysus united in worship of, i. 
278. 

Bacchylides, lyric poet ; profession he- 
reditary ; nephew of Simonides ; born 
at Ceos ; patronised by Hiero ; rival 
of Pindar ; his poetry, i. 192 ; epigram 
of, i. 193. 

Banqueters, the, comedy of Aristo- 
phanes ; obtains second prize, ii. 33 ; 
directed against neglect of physical 
training, ii. 33. 

Baptae, the, comedy of Eupolis ; charge 
of plagiarism against Aristophanes in, 
ii. 29. 

Bards, the early, little known of cha- 
racter ; their office and position ; 
names of, i. 27 ; Pieria, country of, i. 
28. 

Batrachomyomachia, cyclic poem, i. 88 ; 
most celebrated of the mock heroic : 
parody of Iliad ; irreligious satire ; 
author an Athenian, i. 125. 

Bentley, his theory of poems of Homer, 
i. 42 ; opinion respecting iEsop's 
fables, i. 151 ; interpretation of Chro- 
nicle amongst Marmora Oxoniensia, 



INDEX. 



347 



respecting early comedy, ii. 15 ; 
proves epistles attributed to Aristip- 
pus forgeries, ii. 209. 

Bias of Priene, one of Seven Sages ; 
golden tripod sent to, by Thales, 
i. 208 ; little recorded of ; his death, 
i. 212. 

Birds, the, comedy of Aristophanes, 
obtains second prize ; Siivern's opi- 
nion of, i. 40, 44. 

Blood-guilt, the law of ; pervades Greek 
drama, i. 365 ; national feeling re- 
specting, strong, i. 366 ; awful nature 
of ; how exemplified by tragic poets, 
i. 367. 

Boech, his estimate of amount of theoric 
fund grant of Pericles, i. 358. 

Boeotia, epic poetry migrates to, i. 125 ; 
climate of, described by Hesiod, i. 
126; haunt of Muses; names in, 
Phoenician ; poets of, their names, i. 
128; resembles Germany in physical 
character, i. 129 ; original country of 
heroic legends of Theban Cadmus ; 
JEolian inhabitants of; pastoral 
poetry of, its origin, i. 195. 

Boeotians, character of, i. 126; not 
understood by Athenians, i. 128 ; 
similar to that of the Germans, i. 
129 ; did not consider the Theogony 
of Hesiod genuine, i. 134. 

Bunsen, Chevalier, confines dramatic 
representations to Hellenic and Ira- 
nian races, i. 268. 

Cadmus, the Theban, alphabet intro- 
duced into Greece by, i. 13. 

-> , of Miletus, confounded by Sui- 

das with Theban Cadmus ; his works, 
i. 221. 

Callimachus, elegiac poet praised by 
Horace, i. 138. 

Callinus, inventor of elegiac metre ; 
character of his poetry ; stanza of, 
preserved byStobaeus, i. 140. 

Callistratus, example of scolia,by, i. 169. 

, comedian, afraid to act in 

Knights of Aristophanes, ii. 36. 

Canaanites, Dionysiac worship of, car- 
ried by them into Greece ; connection 
of, with Crete, i. 276. 

Canon, of five tragic poets, i. 171- 

Catalogue of women ; poem of Hesiod ; 
more extensive than E0333, i. 135. 

Cato, effect of philosophy of Plato upon, 
ii. 255. 

Catullus, his translation of ode of Sap- 
pho, i. 178. 



Chaeremon, his tragedies rather epic 
than dramatic, i. 342. 

Character, consistency in depicting, 
necessary to epic poetry ; axioms of 
Horace respecting, i. 178. 

Characters, the alphabetic ; Semitic 
and Greek, Phoenician and Samaritan, 
i. 15. 

Chariots, in Homeric age, i. 121. 

Charon, stairs of, in Greek theatre, i. 
346—349. 

, of Lampsacus, historian, works 

probably consulted by Herodotus ; 
compiled annals of Persian war ; 
date of ; follows Hecataeus ; a chron- 
icler rather than an historian, ii. 53. 

Charondas, the laws of, written in verse, 
i. 207 ; a Catanian sage ; his legis- 
lation, i. 248. 

Children, their obedience in Homeric 
age, i. 112. 

Chilon, one of Seven Sages, i. 208 ; of 
Sparta ; advice to Hippocrates, i. 212; 
death, i. 213. 

Chionides, oldest Athenian writer of 
comedy ; date of, uncertain ; small 
remains of his works, ii. 25. 

Choephori, nurse in, i. 292; tragedy of 
iEschylus, i. 295 — 297 ; use of eccy- 
clema in, i. 353 ; of thymele, 354 ; 
choruses in, i. 361 ; blood-guilt, the 
law of, how represented in, i. 367. 

Chcerilus, his tragedies ; excelled in 
satiric drama, i. 282. 

Choliambic, metre invented by Hip- 
ponax ; used by writers of fables, 
i. 149. 

Choral lyrics, i. 159 ; odes ; to whom 
sung ; varieties of, i. 162. 

Choreutes, the chief, audience per- 
sonified in him, i. 271. 

Chorus, the cyclic, i. 263 ; principal ele- 
ment of Attic drama ; Dorian, i. 268; 
religious character of; connecting 
link vrith spectators, i. 270 ; a public 
instructor, i. 271 ; classification of, 
mimetic not dramatic ; no other ac- 
tors in lyrical drama, i. 272 ; how 
changed by Phrynichus, i. 281 ; how 
altered by progress of art, i. 359 ; the 
tragic, Midler's arrangement of ; pri- 
mary and secondary ; in trilogy of 
Orestes, i. 360 ; term lochus applied 
to, i. 361. 

Chromatic, the genera in music, i. 154. 

Chrysothemis, the bard, i. 27; a Cretan; 
hymns to Apollo, i. 28 ; son of Cre- 
tan priest, i. 30. 



348 



INDEX. 



Chthonian, worship, its influence on 
literature, i. 213. 

Cicero, legend of Simonides, related by, 
i. 190 ; gives title of prophet to Epi- 
menides, i. 215 ; his account of 
Thales, i. 242 ; opinion of history of 
Thucydides, ii. 84 ; admiration of the 
Gorgias of Plato ; eloquence of Thu- 
cydides denied by, ii. 109; enumerates 
those famous for eloquence, ii. Ill ; 
his panegyric on Isocrates, ii. 122 ; 
subjects considered by, as necessary 
to orator, ii. 122; criticism on style of 
Lysias, ii. 130 ; respect for Anaxago- 
- ras, ii. 158 ; estimation of prose of 
Plato, ii. 226 ; effect of philosophy 
of Plato upon, ii. 255 ; error in ex- 
planation of terms of Aristotle, ii. 
289. 

Cid, the poem of, i. 32. 

Cimon, judge in contest between iEs- 
chylus and Sophocles, i. 289 — 307. 

Cithara, melodies arranged to, by Ter- 
pander, i. 157 ; instrument of Apollo, 
i. 163. 

Civilization, progress of, marked by 
Pelasgi, i. 11. 

Cleobulina, daughter of Cleobulus ; 
why celebrated, i. 212. 

Cleobulus, one of Seven Sages, i. 208 ; 
of Lindus, i. 211; professes Egyptian 
philosophy ; his apophthegms ; his 
daughter, i. 212. 

Cleon, the demagogue, held up to 
odium by Euripides, in character of 
Ulysses, in the Hecuba, i. 374 ; his 
fate compared with that of Antigone, 
i. 316 ; attack on, by Aristophanes, in 
the Knights, ii. 35 ;in the Clouds, ii. 
37 ; his eloquence, its character and 
abuse, ii. 112; his fallacies; Athe- 
nians misled by, ii. 115 ; method of 
obtaining vote of assembly, ii. 118. 

Climate of Greece ; Cicero's opinion of 
its effects on the mind, i. 21; how 
described, i. 22 ; of Boeotia, effect of, 
i. 126. 

Clinton, his date of Homer, i. 34 ; of 
Hesiod, i, 131 ; refers law spoken of 
by Scholiast on Aristophanes, to pub- 
lic orators, ii. 32. 

Clouds, the, comedy of Aristophanes, 
the most important ; attacks in, on 
Cleon, Lamachus, and Socrates,ii. 37; 
latter, why selected as representative 
of the sophists, ii. 38 ; calculation of 
age of Xenophon, ii. 94. 

Clytemnestra, her character in the Aga- 



memnon ; in the Electra, i. 296 ; ex- 
ample of blood-guilt, i. 368. 

Colour, how used in Homeric age, 
i. 118. 

Colours, in music, six, i. 54. 

Comedy, when it flourished, i. 2 ; earlier 
than tragedy; how connected witlx 
worship of Dionysus, i. 267 ; inven- 
tion of, claimed by Epicharmus, i. 
272 ; etymology of word, i. 274 ; 
origin of, ii. 14 ; Aristotle's account 
of; first assumed tangible form in 
lcaria under Susarion ; Horace's allu- 
sion to him, ii. 15 ; assumed written 
form in time of Epicharmus, ii. 17; 
Dorian, Phormis, writer of; Dinolo- 
chus, last writer of, ii. 17. 

, the Attic, rise of, synchronous 

with decline of Dorian ; its writers ; 
divisions of ; limits of, arbitrary ; 
characteristic feature of ; new resem- 
bles the modern, ii. 18 ; the old, only 
specimens of; unlike modern ; the 
old, resemblance to pantomime ; at- 
tacks on individuals ; its grossness ; 
political and literary criticisms in ; its 
refinements of style, grossness of ex- 
pression, ii. 20 ; embodied newspaper, 
review, satire, pamphlet, caricature of 
modern times ; intense interest of 
people in, generally on right side, ii. 
21; fostered by licence of democracy ; 
personality sometimes provoked inter- 
ference of law, ii. 22 ; legal enact- 
ments respecting ; the parabasis ; 
Chionides protagonist of, ii. 25 ; his 
comedies, analysis of, ii. 32 ; the 
Banqueters ; legal age for poetic com- 
petition ; mistake respecting, ii. 32 ; 
personality of old, ii. 37 ; middle, 
example of, in Plutus of Aristophanes, 
ii. 46 ; small remains of, render no- 
tice unnecessary ; new, beyond chro- 
nological limits of this work, ii. 
48. 

Commerce, consequences of ; introduc- 
tion of, into Greece, i. 138. 

Commi, odes, why so called, i. 361. 

Constellations, which distinguished in 
Homeric age, i. 114. 

Corax, founder of Sicilian school of 
oratory, ii. 110. 

Corinna, Boeotian poetess, i. 128 ; poe- 
try of, i. 161 ; friend and instructress 
of Pindar, i. 197. 

Corinth, Periander, tyrant of, i. 209. 

Costume, how first introduced into dra- 
matic representations, i. 279. 



INDEX, 



349 



Cowper, translations from Homer by, 
1. 25, 26, 44, 54, 55, 56. 

Cranes, the, of Ibycus, i. 187. 

Crantor succeeds Crates at the Aca- 
demy, ii. 272. 

Crates, comic writer, contemporary with 
Cratinus ; first an actor ; copies Epi- 
charmua ; translation of fragment of, 
by Cumberland, ii. 30 ; notice of, 
by Aristophanes, translated by Mit- 
chell, ii. 31. 

Crates, philosopher, succeeds Polerno at 
the Academy, ii. 272. 

Cratinus, comic writer, contemporary 
with Aristophanes ; natiye of Attica, 
little known of; his love of wine; 
his lyrics, ii. 27 ; mention of, by Aris- 
tophanes, translated bv Mitchell, ii. 
28. 

Cratylus, teaches Plato ; doctrines of 
Heraclitus, ii. 221. 

, the, of Plato, analysis of, ii. 

269. 

Creed, religious, represented in its suc- 
cessive changes by poets, i. 287. 

Criticism, age of. in Greece, i. 87. 

Croesus, king of Lydia, his empire, de- 
stroyed by Cyrus, in time of Hippo- 
nax, i. 149 ; course of river Halys 
turned at command of, i. 211. 

Crotona, philosophical school of, i. 249. 

Ctesias, historian, fragments only of his 
works remain ; native of Cnidus ; 
contemporary with Thucydides ; phy- 
sician to Artaxerxes; wrote history of 
Assyrian and Persian monarchies ; of 
little value ; differs from Herodotus, 
ii. 105 ; irreconcilable with Scripture, 
ii. 106 ; analysis of his work on natu- 
ral history, by Photius, ii. 107. 

Cumberland, his translation of fragment 
of Crates,'ii. 30. 

Curtains, in Greek theatre, i. 347. 

Cybele, worshipped with hymns, i. 27. 

Cyclic poets, the imitators of Homer, i. 
33 ; Ionian, i. 34 ; dances, i. 162 ; 
why so called, i. 163. 

Cyclops, Polyphemus, the, i. 70 ; satiric 
play of Euripides, translation from, 
by Anstice, i. 338. 

Cynic, the school, founded by Aristip- 
pus, ii. 206 ;, doctrines of, ii. 216. 

Cvn.sartjes, name of the school of cynic 
philosophers, ii. 278. 

Cyrenaic, school of philosophy, founded 
by Aristippus, ii. 206 ; why so called, 
ii* 209 ; account of, ii. 210 ; parent of 
the Epicurean; principle of, that all 



eDJoyment lawful, alluded to by Ho- 
race, illustrated by saying of Aris- 
tippus, corollary from relation to 
Socratic school, little resemblance to, 
ii. 210; in what to be found ; superi- 
ority attributed to ethical over phy- 
sical science by ; fivefold division of 
science adopted by, ii. 2 11: agreed with 
Socrates, that pleasure is chief good ; 
example of viciousness of system of ; 
Patter's observation upon, ii. 212 ; 
doctrines of, respecting pain and plea- 
sure, metaphysics of. ii. 213 ; logical 
theory of, unknown ; doctrines modi- 
fied in time of Alexander's succes- 
sors, ii. 214. 

Cyropaedia, of Xenophon, historical 
and philosophical romances, ii. 101. 

Cyrus, struggle of Ionian Greeks against, 
in first period of Greek classical liter- 
ature, i. 2. 

Daemon, the, of Socrates, ii. 187. 

Dahlman attributes much of the confu- 
sion of early Italian history to Hel- 
lanicus, ii. 54 ; opinion of Artemisia, 
Queen of Halicarcassus, ii. 56. 

Damasias, his archonship, epoch of 
Seven Sages, i. 208. 

Dance, the choral ; its character, i. 26. 

Dante, an epic poet, i, 32. 

Dead, bodies of the, burnt ; memorials 
to, in Homeric ages, i. 113. 

Decades, month divided into, by He- 
siod, i. 131. 

Deities, the Olympic ; their characters 
and offices, i. 98 ; analogy between 
them and men, i. 100 ; distinct from 
men, i. 102 ; presence of, realized by 
Greeks, i. 266. 

Delos, island of, seat of worship of 
Apollo, i. 165. 

Delphi, seat of worship of Apollo, i. 165 ; 
oracular shrine of. i. 101, 103. 

Demades, his origin and character, ii. 
148; his death, ii. 149. 

Demagogues, character of, according to 
Thucydides, Isocrates, ii. 114; and 
Aristophanes, ii. 115. 

Demeter, worshipped with hymns, i. 27; 
worship of, at Paros and Eleusis, 
gave scope for raillery, i. 145 : an- 
cestors of Archilochus, priests of, i. 
146 ; mysteries of, at Eleusis, i. 213 ; 
etymology of word ; mother of Iac- 
chus, i. 277; of Proserpine, i. 273. 

Demetrius Phalereus, epoch of Seven 
Sages, i. 208. 



350 



INDEX. 



Democracy, evils of, seen by Thucy- 
dides, ii. 83 ; eloquence flourished un- 
der, ii. 124. 

Democritus, the sophist, ingenious and 
learned in philosophy, ii. 178; his 
doctrines opposed by Plato, ii. 258. 

Demosthenes, how theoric law of Eu- 
bulus evaded by, i. 358 ; his esti- 
mate of marriage, i. 330 ; how in- 
troduced in Knights of Aristophanes, 
ii. 36 ; rhythm of sentences quoted 
by Longinus, ii. 120 ; characteris- 
tics of his style by Cicero, ii. 131 ; 
born at Paeania ; occupation of fa- 
ther ; when born ; his inheritance 
wasted; litigation with guardians; its 
consequences, ii. 136; his education; 
constitution ; serves office of choregus]; 
assaulted by Midias, ii. 137 ; his ora- 
tion against war with Persia; its suc- 
cess ; attacks Philip of Macedon; pleads 
cause of 01ynthians,ii. 138; conductof, 
compared with that of ^Eschines, ii. 
139 ; his Philippics ; oration for the 
Crown; cause and consequence of; his 
integrity, ii. 140 ; lives in exile till 
deathof Alexander ; returns to Athens ; 
swallows poison ;described by Juvenal, 
ii. 141 ; his style; Cicero's opinion of ; 
Longinus 5 panegyric on; his delivery; 
his own, and iEschines', opinion of 
its importance ; his orations ; number 
extant; Hyperides, friendship for, ii. 
146; bribes Demades, ii. 148. 

, father of orator of the same 

name, his trade, ii. 136. 

Demus, the personification of Athenian 
people in Knights of Aristophanes ; 
Cleon, slave to, ii. 36. 

, the, its character, ii. 115; flat- 
tered by Pericles ; misled by fallacies 
of Cleon ; how described in Knights 
of Aristophanes, ii. 116. 

Destiny, influence of, over gods and 
men ; confidence of Here in, of 
Athene, of Poseidon ; Zeus limited 
by, i. 99 ; under tragedians, subordi- 
nate to the will of God, i. 286. 

Dialect of Homer, i. 34. 

Dialectici, followers of Euclides, so- 
called, ii. 218. 

Dialects, of Greece numerous, i. 8 ; how 
formed and perpetuated, i. 9. 

Dialogue, Ionic, element in Attic drama, 
i. 268 ; how connected with chorus ; 
Aristotle's opinion on this point, i. 
273 ; how introduced, i. 280. 

Diana, worship of Dorian ; associated 



with Apollo ; female personification 
of same idea, i. 167 ; hymns sung in 
honour of, i. 186. 

Diapason, in music, i. 154, 160. 

Diasceuasta3, the, i. 84 ; their interpo- 
lations, i. 88. 

Diatonic, genera in music, i. 154. 

Dicasts, their influence ; how exercised, 
ii. 116. 

Digamma, power and use of, i. 17 ; 
Porson's observation on, i. 46. 

Dinarchus, last of ten Athenian orators; 
born at Corinth ; resides at Athens ; 
employed in writing speeches : at- 
tached to Macedonian cause ; amas- 
ses great wealth ; flies to Chalcis, in 
Euboea; returns through influence 
of Theophrastus ; his orations ; their 
character, ii. 251. 

Dinolochus, pupil of Epicharmus, a 
Sicilian ; of his works, the titles of a 
few only remain, ii. 17. 

Dio, visits Sicily with Plato, to remodel 
constitution of Syracuse ; banished 
by Dionysius the Younger, ii. 222. 

Diogenes, native of Apollonia ; philoso- 
pher of dynamic school, ii. 153 ; re- 
semblance to Anaximenes ; contem- 
porary with Anaxagoras ; his phy- 
sical theory ; intellect, added by him 
to vital energy of Anaximenes and 
Thales, the soul of the universe ; his 
first principle, air ; last of dynamical 
philosophers of Ionian school ; opi- 
nion of his style by Diogenes Laer- 
tius, ii. 154. 

Laertius, attributes collection 

of Homer's poems to Solon, i. 87 ; 
his account of the death of Bias, i. 
212 ; on lyrical drama, i. 272 ; his 
account of the commencement of the 
philosophical career of Socrates, ii. 
186 ; his life of Plato of little autho- 
rity, ii. 219 ; estimate of literary la- 
bours of Aristotle, ii. 279. 

Diomede, hero of fifth book of Iliad, 
i. 63. 

Diomus, a Sicilian cowherd; inventor 
of pastoral poetry, i. 187. 

Dionysia, the rural, when celebrated, 
i. 356 ; the great ; new plays only 
performed at ; concourse of strangers 
assembled at, i. 357 ; representatives 
of allies meet at, tp pay tribute, i. 
358 ; celebrated in Acharnians of 
Aristophanes, ii. 35. 

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, his estima- 
tion of logographers, i. 219. 



INDEX. 



351 



Dionysius, the elder, Aristippus, flat- 
terer and companion of, ii. 209 ; Plato 
visits Sicily in time of, ii. 222. 

, the younger, Plato visits Sicily 

twice in time of; banishes Dio, 
ii. 222. 

Dionysus, worshipped in hymns, i. 27 ; 
by Orpheus, i. 28 ; character of wor- 
ship ; the Lyconidae, priests of, i. 29 ; 
worship of, allied to that of Demeter, 
i. 145 ; dithyramb, ode in honour of, 
i. 163 ; etymology of name, i. 165 ; 
not Dorian deity, i. 165 ; his worship 
succeeds that of Apollo and Diana, 
i. 168 ; represents fertility of the 
earth, i. 169 ; effect of worship on 
Theban poetry, i. 196 ; his mysteries ; 
Chthonian deity ; i. 213 ; theatre, a 
temple of, i. 263 ; comedy, how con- 
nected with worship of, i. 267 ; legends 
of, the first narratives introduced into 
chorus, i. 274 ; proverb respecting, i. 
274 ; character and origin of his wor- 
ship, i. 275 ; god of many names ; 
his birth-place ; identity with Osiris ; 
similarity of rites to those of Indian 
Bacchus ; worship of, introduced from 
Egypt and Phoenicia ; brought into 
Greece from Canaan, i. 275 ; charac- 
ter of worship in Thrace, i. 277 ; altar 
of, at Athens, i. 344 ; thymele, altar 
to, i. 345 ; theatrical representations 
only given on his feasts, i. 356 ; tem- 
ples of, why in marshy localities, i. 
357 ; comedy, when first incorporated 
with worship, ii. 15. 

Dioscorides, his opinion of Homer's ob- 
ject, i. 37. 

Dithyramb, a choral song, i. 162 ; its 
character, i. 163 ; germ of choral 
element in Attic tragedy, i. 163 ; in- 
troduced by Arion ; etymology of 
word, i. 164 ; connexion of, with 
Dionysus, i. 165. 

Donaldson proves Herodotus to have 
copied Sophocles, ii. 65. 

Dorian, migrations, their effect, i. 165 ; 
choral lyric, national and patriotic, i. 
168 ; bucolic poetry ; colonies in 
Sicily, i. 143 ; public tables, influ- 
ences of poetry of, i. 144 ; poetry 
lyric ; mode in music, i. 155 ; ele- 
ment of Attic drama, the, i. 268. 

■ , the, philosophic idea developed 

by Pythagoras, ii. 174. 

Dorians, mountaineers, i. 11 ; Hellenes, 
i. 13 ; enemies of Ionians, i. 34 ; 
attachment of, to antiquity, i. 157 ; 



lyric poetry of, i. 159 ; simplicity of 
character, religious belief of, i. 166 ; 
poetry of, often coarse, i. 169 ; con- 
nexion with Sicilians, consequences 
of, i. 186 ; opposed to tyranny, i. 260 ; 
influence of, strongest in Athens till 
Persian war, i. 283. 

Doric dialect, its character, i. 160. 

Drama, the, appears first in time of 
Pisistratus, i. 261 ; Schlegel's charac- 
teristic of, i. 262 ; its true features ; 
realisation of, by spectators ; its reli- 
gious character ; its great subject ; 
the Christian, i. 266 ; elements of, i. 
268 ; Semitic races have none ; crea- 
tion of Hellenic mind ; not entirely 
wanting in India, i. 268; continuation 
of lyric and epic poetry, i. 268 ; of 
Attic growth, i. 269 ; spectators repre- 
sented by chorus in, i. 270 : Iacchic 
and Dionysiac \vorship united in, i. 
278 ; the Attic, religious creed of, 
different from that of Homer, i. 286 ; 
tragedies of Sophocles, perfection of, 
i. 311 ; the satiric, only example re- 
maining of, the Cyclops, i. 337 ; a 
national affair ; its splendour ; ex- 
penses of, how defrayed ; payment 
from spectators, why and when de- 
manded ; remitted by Pericles ; 
amount of, estimated by Boech, i. 
358 ; how altered by progress of art, 
i. 359 : dresses in, i. 362 : Muller's 
arrangement of actors in ; at first 
dialogue between odes, how changed, 
and by whom, i. 363 ; how characters 
became examples ; duty of making 
them examples recognised by Horace, 
i. 371 ; illustrations, i. 372. 

Dresses in Greek drama, Dionysiac dis- 
tinctions of, characteristic, i. 363. 

Dynamical theory of Ionian philosophy, 
its supporters, i. 241. 

E, the letter, originally an aspirate, i. 
16; long, when introduced, i. 17 ; 
how subsequently divided ; place of, 
as aspirate supplied by X, i. 18. 

Ecclesia, the constitution of, how affect- 
ing oratory, ii. 113. 

Ecclesiazusae, comedy of Aristophanes ; 
no parabasis in, ii. 23 ; attack on Plato, 
ii. 43. 

Eccyclema, the, in Greek theatre, i. 352; 
examples of its use, i. 353. 

Echembrotus, an Arcadian, sang elegies 
to flute, i. 143. 

Education in Athens, how and when 



352 



INDEX. 



changed, i. 177 ; sophists, supporters 
of new system of ; ancient and modern 
systems of, contrasted, ii. 180. 

Egypt, philosophy of, how connected 
with that of Greece, i. 233. 

Egyptians, the, first cultivate history, ii. 
49. 

Elea, in Magna Graecia, philosophic 
school of, i. 256 ; the modern Velia, 
i. 240. 

Eleatic philosophy, founded by Xeno- 
phanes, i. 256; Ionian related to 
Pythagorean, i. 240 ; doctrines of, 
existed before time of Xenophanes, i. 
257 ; four elements of, coincident with 
those of Zeno, ii. 162; of Melissus, 
ii. 164; of Empedocles, ii. 167; 
marks epoch in philosophy, ii. 168 ; 
revival of philosophy, ii. 174 ; doc- 
trines of, represented by Hermogenes 
in Cratylus of Plato, ii. 270. 

Electra, tragedy of Sophocles ; analysis 
of, i. 318; character of; compared 
with Antigone, i. 318 ; examples of 
use ofeccyclema in, i. 353. 

Elegiac poetry, its origin, etymology of 
word, i. 137; character of; metre 
how differing from epic ; advance in 
art ; compared with prose ; used for 
inscriptions, i. 139. 

Elements, the, their influence in Ionian 
philosophy, i. 244, 246,247 ; in that 
of Eleatic school, i. 258. 

Eleusis, in Attica, worship of Demeter, 
celebrated at, i. 1 45. 

Eleusinian mysteries ; truths symbolized 
in ; revelry at, in honour of Iacchus, 
i. 278. 

Elis, school of, how founded, ii. 207. 

Eloquence, principal characteristic of 
Greek literature ; of Homer's heroes ; 
of the philosophers; of Herodotus, 
Thucydides, Xenophon, ii. 108 ; nur- 
tured by necessities of free constitu- 
tions ; perfection of, owing to Thu- 
cydides, this denied by Cicero ; cul- 
tivated in Sicily before Greece, ii. 
1 09 ; those famous for, enumerated 
by Cicero ; died in Greece with 
Athenian independence, ii. 124 ; ora- 
tions of Demosthenes, perfection of, 
ii. 134. 

Empedocles, pupil of Parmenides with 
Zeno, ii. 160 ; date of birth ; native 
of Agrigentum, of high rank; doc- 
trines Pythagorean ; disciple of Par- 
menides ; esteemed by Aristotle the 
inventor of rhetoric, ii. 165 ; his works 



written in verse ; blame imputed to, 
by Aristotle; Ritter's opinion re- 
specting ; accounts of, partly fabu- 
lous, ii. 166; exile, death, philosophy, 
ii. 167. 

Encomium, origin of word, i. 199. 

Enharmonic genera, in music, i. 154. 

Eceae, poem of Hesiod, catalogue of 
Mothers of Heroes ; how connected 
with the Theogony ; etymology of 
word, i. 135. 

Epic of Homer ; but few writers of, i. 
32 ; of Hesiod, different from that of 
Homer ; the poetry of monarchical 
period, i. 137. 

Epicharmus, his account of Sicilian pas- 
torals, i. 186; a Sicilian claims in- 
vention of comedy, i. 272 ; resides at 
Megara, in Sicily, and at court of 
Hiero ; studies under Pythagoras ; 
imitated by Plautus ; skill in con- 
structing plot, ii. 16 ; his subjects 
mythological ; titles of comedies 
known ; twenty-six preserved by 
Athenasus ; called by Plato the foun- 
der of comedy; his death, ii. 17; 
copied by Crates, ii. 30. 

Epicurean schoolof philosophy; offspring 
of Cyrenaic, ii. 210. 

Epigram, why so called ; difference be- 
tween modern and ancient, i. 140; 
on Sappho, i. 181 ; of Bacchylides, i. 
193 ; on Sophocles, by Simonides ; by 
Simmias, i. 311 ; anonymous Euri- 
pides ; imitated by Ben Jonson, i. 
327 ; on Aristophanes, ii. 32. 

Epimenides, a Cretan sage ; his skill in 
purification ; friend and assistant of 
Solon, i. 207 ; sacerdotal poet, legend 
of, i.214 ; his works; Cicero calls him 
prophet ; quoted by St. Paul, i. 215. 

Episode, intermediate speeches between 
prologue and exode, so called, i. 361. 

Episodes, in history of Herodotus, not 
digressions, ii. 66. 

Epitaph on Archedice, i. 191 ; on those 
who fell at Marathon, i. 192 ; on 
^Eschylus, i. 290. 

Eratosthenes, orations of Lysias,against, 
ii. 129. 

Eretria, school of, how founded, ii. 207. 

Erinna, Rhodian poetess, friend of 
Sappho, i. 181 ; her works, i. 182. 

Eristici, followers of Euclides, so- 
called, ii. 218. 

Eubulus, his law respecting theoi ic 
fund ; how evaded by Demosthenes, 
i. 358. 



INDEX. 



353 



Euclid, his definitions of harmony, i. 
153. 

Euclides, early disciples of Socrates, 
flies to JVJegara ; of Eleatic school, 
ii. 217; turn of mind, dialectic; 
founds school of Megara ; mode of 
reasoning ; appellations of followers ; 
works not preserved, ii. 218. 

Eugammon of Cyrene, cyclic poet, i. 
136. 

Eugeon, Samian historian, quoted by 
Suidas, i. 150. 

Eumaeus, his actions in Odyssey, i. 71. 

Eumelus of Corinth ; cyclic poet, i. 
136 ; lyric poet ; his prosodion in ho- 
nour of Apollo, i. 171. 

Eumenides, tragedy of; political opi- 
nions of iEschylus, shown in, i. 289 ; 
last of Oresean trilogy, i. 295 ; ana- 
lysis of, i. 298 ; political object of 
primary, i. 300 ; scenery in, i. 346 ; 
what the orchestra represented in, i. 
354 ; choruses in, i. 361 ; blood- 
guilt exemplified in, i. 367 ; political 
instruction; how conveyed in, i. 372. 
iEschylus' impartiality in, i. 134. 

Eumolpus, a bard, i. 27 ; a Thracian, i. 
28 ; mythical patriarch of noble Athe- 
nian family ; high priest of Eleusis, 
i. 29. 

Euphemism of Greek poets, its conse- 
quences, ii. 3. 

Euphorion, son of iEschylus, i. 284 ; 
successful in competition with Sopho- 
cles and Euripides, i. 341. 

Eupolis, comic writer ; his wit, story of 
his death ; antagonist to Aristo- 
phanes ; his works, ii. 29. 

Euripides, time of his death, i. 283 ; 
Xenocles victorious over, i. 284 ; re- 
presents philosophical creed of Greeks, 
i. 287 ; obtains prize, i. 307 ; contrast 
to iEschylus and Sophocles ; his a 
new era in literary taste, i. 322 ; birth 
and parentage, i. 323 ; education ; 
early devotion to tragic Muse ; his 
character ; philosophy, i. 324 ; politi- 
cal opinions ; Athenaeus' unjust 
stigma on; introduces new element 
of interest into drama, i. 325 ; domes- 
tic history uncertain ; driven from 
Athens ; seeks asylum in Macedon ; 
his death, i. 326 ; epigram to ; cha- 
racteristics of his style ; his love for 
speculative philosophy, i. 327 ; poetry 
of, appreciated by Sicilians, i. 328 ; 
common-place view of human nature; 
his heroes ; low moral position of 



women in works of, i. 329 ; estimate 
of, by Aristophanes; Aristotle notices 
his polished wit ; the prologues of, 
Aristophanes' attack on, i. 332 ; 
deficiency in artistic skill ; gods, how 
used by him, i. 333 ; his politics ; 
attacks on demagogues, i. 334 ; hos- 
tility to Dorians ; fondness for dis- 
putation ; sweetness of lyrics, i. 335 ; 
choruses not essential to his tragedies, 
i. 336; list of his works; Cyclops, 
only example of satiric drama, i. 
337 ; translations from, i. 338 ; con- 
temporaries of, i. 339 ; nephew of 
same name a tragic poet, i. 342 ; use 
of eccyclema in plays of, i. 354 ; 
descriptive truthfulness, ii. 10 ; at- 
tacked in Thesmophoriazusas and 
Frogs of Aristophanes ; ruined by 
his own sophistry, ii. 44. 

Eusebius, his date of Simonides, i. 142. 

Exode, last speech in play, when so 
called, i. 361. 

Fables, cboliambic metre used by 
writers of; not indigenous in Greece ; 
resemble parabolic symbolisms of 
Orientals; of JEsop, many Eastern ; 
of Greece, traditionally Libyan, i. 
149 ; the oldest by Hesiod ; written 
by Archilochus and Stesichorus ; 
attributed to iEsop, i. 150. 

Fate, see Destiny. 

Female sex, position of, in Homeric 
age,i. 110. 

Festivals of Greeks, how employed, 
i. 48- 

Fire, original element in philosophy of 
Heraclitus, i. 246. 

Flute, music for, said to have been in- 
vented by Olympus, i. 158 ; what 
lyrics sung to ; the instrument of 
Dionysus, 163; the Grecian, its 
character, i. 196. 

Frogs, the, Aristophanes, in comedy of, 
continues attack commenced in Thes- 
mophoriazusae ; analj sis of, ii. 43 ; 
distinguished by beauty of choral 
odes, ii. 44. 

Funeral-song, i. 25 ; of Achilles, i. 26. 

Furies, the executors of vengeance, 
even upon gods, i. 101. 

Gaisford, fragments of Solon preserved 

by, i. 148. 
Gemelli, his ideas of scenery in Greek 

theatres, i. 347. 
Genera in music, i. 154. 



354 



INDEX. 



Geographical knowledge, in Homeric 
age, i. 115; extent of; accuracy of 
Homer's; examples of, i. 116. 

Geography, considered by Herodotus 
essential to history; the earliest, that 
of Herodotus, ii. 70. 

German language, the facility of, com- 
position in, i. 191. 

, character of, resembling that 

of Boeotian, i. 129. 

Germany, physical resemblance of, to 
Boeotia, i. 129. 

Gifford, translation from Juvenal on 
death of Demosthenes, ii. 141. 

Gnomic poetry, why so called, i. 135 ; 
Solon a gnomic poet, i. 142. 

Gods, battle of, in Homer, compared 
with war of Titans in Hesiod, i. 
132. 

Gorgias, his saying respecting Persians 
of^Eschylus, i. 290. 

, of Leontium, established first 

school of rhetoric at Athens, analyses 
rhetorical rhythm ; his pupils ; extant 
works of, rhetorical exercises, ii. 110 ; 
Empedocles, teacher of, character of 
his oratory ; lover of natural philo- 
sophy ; specimen of sophistic teach- 
ing in essay of, ii. 183. 

of Plato, why admired by 



Cicero, ii. 108. 

Government of Greece in Homeric age, 
i. 105. 

Grammar of Greek language, its cha- 
racter, i. 6 ; normal, of attraction, 
rather than government, i. 7 ; its effect 
on hearer ; on metre and rhythm ; on 
quantity, i. 8. 

Grammarians, the Alexandrian, con- 
sider Theogony of Hesiod genuine ; 
collect works of poets of epic cycle, 
135 ; their canon of lyric poets, i. 
171 ; their canon of tragic poets, i. 
340 ; technical divisions of parabasis, 
ii. 23. 

Grapes of Palestine, account of, i. 276. 

Greece, physical changes in, ii. 2 ; ap- 
pearance of, ii. 4 ; its chief beauty 
the sea ; its atmosphere ; had no na- 
tionality till Persian war, ii. 52 ; ac- 
curately described by Herodotus, ii. 
60. 

, literature of, Herodotus deeply 

imbued with, ii. 64 ; eloquence cha- 
racteristic of, ii. 108. 

Greeks distinguished for mental energy ; 
assisted in development by structure 
of language, i. 5 ; religious feelings 



of, i. 75 ; early religion monotheism, 
i. 97 ; early government monarchy, 
with defined privileges, i. 105 ; no 
nationalist?", i. 220 ; had no historic 
records, ii. 50. 
Gregory laid foundations of modern 
musical science, i. 155. 

Hades, Odysseus descends into ; descrip- 
tion of, i. 70 ; second descent, inter- 
polation, i. 77. 

Harmony not known to Greeks ; Euclid's 
definition of, i. 153 ; basis of Pytha- 
gorean system of philosophy, i. 253 ; 
how affecting senses and intellect, i. 
255. 

Hebrew alphabet, origin of, i. 14 ; com- 
pared with Greek ; transition from 
Semitic to Greek forms, i. 15. 

Hecataeus, his works excepted from those 
of logographers, i. 219 ; of Miletus, i. 
221 ; known through Herodotus; his 
history ; character suited for historian 
and geographer, i. 222 ; work genea- 
logical ; his boasted descent ; credu- 
lity, i. 223 ; map of Aristagoras, con- 
structed by ; his Ionic purer than that 
of Herodotus, i. 224. 

Hector, actions of, in Iliad, i. 63. 

Hecuba, translation from the, by Anstice, 
i. 339 ; consistency in character of, i. 
81. 

Hedelin,his theory of Iliad and Oydssey, 
i. 41. 

Heeren, his geography of Herodotus, ii. 
70. 

Hellanicus, contemporary with Hero- 
dotus ; of Mitylene ; chronology in- 
correct, ii. 53 ; confusion in early 
Italian history attributed to, ii. 54. 

Helen, consistency in character of, i. 
81 ; attack on, by Stesichorus, i. 184. 

Hellenes, migrate into Greece; an Ionian 
race, i. 10 ; warlike and conquering, 
of same origin as Pelasgi, i. 12 ; 
Dorians, i. 13. 

Hellenic language, its affinity to Per- 
sian, i. 10. 

Hellenica, great historical work of 
Xenophon ; continues the history of 
Thucydides to battle of Mantineia, 
ii. 100. 

Hephaestus, fall of, i. 132 ; actions in 
Iliad and Odyssey, 4. 

Heraclitus of Ephesus, difficulty of his 
style, i, 245 ; fragments of works pre- 
served by Sehleiermacher ; Aristotle's 
account of; his character, i. 246; 



INDEX. 



355 



distinctive feature of his philosophy, 
i. 247 ; his doctrines, how repre- 
sented in Cratylus of Plato, ii. 270. 

Hercules Furens, use of eccyclema in 
play of, i. 354. 

Here, actions of, in Iliad, i. 6'3. 

Hermogenes, represents Eleatic school 
in Cratylus of Plato, ii. 270. 

Hero-worship, first appears in Hesiod, 
i. 102 ; Greek mind addicted to, i. 369. 

Herodorus, of Heraclea, historian, works, 
mythological, ii. 54. 

Herodotus, his account of Pelasgi, i. 9 ; 
11, 1'2, 97 ; of hymns of Olen ; era 
of Homer, i. 35 ; rejects minor poems 
attributed to Homer, i. 38 ; attributes 
formation of Grecian mythology to 
Homer and Hesiod, i. 98 ; his date of 
Hesiod, i. 130; his style, i. 139 ; story 
of .Esop, as told by, i. 151 ; legend of 
Arion, i. 172 ; account of Hecataeus, 
derives Pelasgian history from him, 
ridicules his want of physical know- 
ledge,!. 223 ; relates that Pherecydes 
first wrote on parchment ; asserts 
worship of Dionysus to have been 
introduced from Egypt and Phoenicia, 
i. 275 ; differs from JEschylus in ac- 
count of exploits of Aristides and 
Themistocles, i. 301 ; his truthful- 
ness, ii. 11 ; narratives, romantic, ii. 
12 ; father of history, ii. 54 ; struggle 
of Greeks for liberty; origin of his 
history ; first to write history properly ; 
using chronology and geography ; 
Homer of History, called so by 
M'dller, ii. 55 ; Suidas' authority for 
biography ; born at Halicarnassus ; 
his family ; enjoys peace in youth 
under Persians ; time of birth doubt- 
ful, ii. 56 ; date of Aulus Gellius, ii. 
56; admiration for Homer and He- 
siod ; information, how collected ; his 
careful observation ; travels, exten- 
sive ; time and cost of history, ii. 57 ; 
course of travel uncertain ; place 
where history written, uncertain, ac- 
cording to Suidas, Lucian, Pliny ; 
travels estimated from examination of 
history, ii. 58 ; his knowledge of the 
iEgean, Lydia, Tyre, and the Holy 
Land ; of the column of Sesostris ; 
Jerusalem ; Mesopotamia ; Babylon ; 
Nineveh ; Ecbatana ; Media, ii. 59 ; 
Susa ; Magna Graecia ; Egypt ; Ele- 
phantine ; Arabia ; Cyrene ; Thrace ; 
Scythia ; the Euxine ; Greece, accu- 
rately described by, ii. 60 ; story of 



Lucian discredited ; probably recited 
triumphs of Greece over Persia at 
Olympic festival ; object of his his- 
tory ; love for free institutions, ii. 61; 
authority of, established by modern 
researches ; Plutarch's accusation 
against ; episodes probably related ; 
this does not prevent his history from 
having been written late in life, ii. 
62 ; probability that history was writ- 
ten in Magna Graecia ; passages to 
prove ; early residence at Halicar- 
nassus ; residence at Samos ; hence 
Ionian dialect and attachment to 
Athens ; friendship with Sophocles ; 
return to Halicarnassus ; resides at 
Athens ; migrates to Thurii ; igno- 
rance of western geography ; deeply 
imbued with poetic literature of 
Greece, ii. 64 ; adopts thoughts and 
phraseology of Sophocles ; Greek pro- 
verbial sayings scattered through 
works of, ii. 65 ; compared with Thu- 
cydides, ii. 91 ; with Homer, ii. 93; 
with Ctesias, ii. 105. 

Herodotus, poetic talent of, ii. 66 ; his- 
tory of an epic ; language of ; subject 
of ; episodes in, ii. 66 ; books of, 
names of Muses attached to, ii. 67 ; 
method pursued by, in history, ii. 67 ; 
authority of, as historian ; not philo- 
sophical ; no theory to defend ; his 
truthfulness ; groundwork easily sepa- 
rated from embellishment ; candid 
temper of; no bitterness against Per- 
sians ; exaggeration not wilful, ii. 68; 
description unostentatious ; does not 
conceal medizing of Greeks ; style 
simple ; example of Aristotle's loose 
stvle ; his narratives, ii. 69 ; religious 
belief of, ii. 70. 

, geography of, by whom 

fully treated of; no system, ii, 70; 
accounts earliest on record ; know- 
ledge of, nearly equal to Ptolemy ; in 
some things surpassing Strabo and 
Pliny ; accuracy established by mo- 
dern discovery ; theory of distribution 
of land and water, ii. 71; ignorance 
of natural phenomena ; that of his 
age, ii. 74. 

Hesiod, esteemed by Herodotus one of 
the framers of Greek mythology ; 
Thirlwall's opinion respecting his 
philosophy, i. 98; Furies described by, 
i. 101 ; dawn of hero-worship appears 
in his works, i. 102 , poetry of, i. 125 ; 
founder of a new school ; an Asiatic 



356 



INDEX, 



Greek ; his description of Boeotia, 
i. 126 ; view of human life ; poetry, 
didactic, instructive in commerce ; 
in agriculture; his principles of lat- 
ter still observed in Boeotia ; epic, 
how different from Homer's ; depend- 
ence on the gods ; moral truth con- 
veyed in his works ; age of ; He- 
rodotus' estimate ; Sir I. Newton's, 
i. 130 ; Clinton's ; later than Homer ; 
difference in language ; views of fu- 
ture state better defined ; divides 
month into decades ; imitates Homer, 
i. 131 ; amplifies Homer, example from 
Milton, i. 132 ; watches father's flock 
at foot of Mount Helicon ; inspired 
by Muses ; gains prize at Chalcis ; 
conduct of, to his brother ; lives of, 
fabulous ; a Boeotian poet, i. 133 ; 
Works and Days, only undisputed 
poem of; its character; genuineness 
of, disputed ; its character; catalogue 
of Heroes, connects it with Eceae ; 
that poem ; its character ; Shield of 
Heracles ; poems of, the oldest spe- 
cimens of the gnomic literature of 
Greece, i. 135; the oldest fable his, 
i. 150 ; Stesichorus, called son of, 
i. 183. 

Heyne supports French theory respect- 
ing poems of Homer, i. 41 ; hypothesis 
of, respecting, i. 50. 

Hierarchies, how favourable to preserva- 
tion of historical records, ii. 51 . 

Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, patron of 
Simonides, i. 190 ; of Bacchylides, 
i. 192 ; of Pindar, i. 198. 

Hipparchus, patron of Simonides, i. 
188. 

Hippias, sophist, native of Elis, teacher 
of rhetoric, ii. Ill ; his varied ac- 
complishments and genius, ii. 178 ; 
his pretensions, ii. 182. 

Hippocles, Thracian, Pindar's tenth ode 
in honour of, i. 197. 

Hippolytus, use of eccyclema in play 
of, i. 354. 

Hipponax, Ephesian iambic poet ; 
bitterness of; flourished in time of 
Croesus ; inventor of choliambic 
metre, i. 149. 

Historians, the Greek, their truthful- 
ness, ii. 11 ; information derived by, 
from Egyptian priests, ii. 51. 

History deficient in early Greece ; none 
prior to Herodotus ; contrast to Jew- 
ish, Egyptian, and Oriental records, 
i. 220 ; cultivated by Semitic nations, 



ii. 49 ; no elements for, among early 
Greeks, ii. 50 ; monarchies and 
hierarchies favourable to ; records of, 
ii. 51 ; traditional, by whom written, 
ii. 53. 

History, Herodotus, father of, ii. 54 ; 
the, of Herodotus ; origin of, ii. 55 ; 
materials for, how collected ; an epic, 
ii. 66. 

, the, of Thucydides, philoso- 
phical, ii. 76 ; value of, ii. 77 ; eighth 
book attributed to his daughter by 
some, to Xenophon by others, ii. 79 ; 
a complete work ; subject of ; epi- 
sodes in, not digressions ; chronolo- 
gical arrangement of, ii. 81 ; speeches 
in, how to be understood, ii. 83 ; 
style of; truthfulness and descriptive 
power of, ii. 87. 

the, of Xenophon, the Helle- 
nics, character of; style of; the 
Anabasis more interesting ; extends 
that of Thucydides to battle of Man- 
tineia, ii. 101. 

■ the, of Ctesias, Assyrian and 

Persian ; its character, ii. 105. 

Hobbes, his translation of epitaph on 
Archedice by Simonides, i. 191. 

Homer, compared with Hesiod ; the 
father of tragedy, i. 1 29 ; earlier than 
Hesiod, i. 130 ; proofs, i. 132 ; his 
idea of creation, i. 134 ; religious 
creed of, different from that of trage- 
dians, i. 286 ; represents popular 
creed of Greeks, i. 287 ; poems of 
earliest Grecian literature ; birthplace 
of, uncertain ; Miiller's opinion of 
tradition respecting, i. 32 ; epithets 
of;, Ionian scenery faithfully de- 
scribed by ; his reverence for Ionian 
mythology, i. 33 ; avoids allusion to 
Dorian conquest ; dialect of; era of, 
i. 34-45 ; lives of, i. 35 ; etymology 
of name ; name when first given ; 
marriage ; death ; sons of, i. 36 ; 
elegy ; poems of; their object; pu- 
rity of; legend of, how far true ; 
origin of poems, i. 38 ; personality of, 
asserted ; minor poems rejected, i. 38 ; 
differences in poems of, i. 39, 40 ; 
Heyne adopts French theory respect- 
ing, i. 41 ; Bentley's opinion ; Wood 
doubts their having been written ; 
opinion of Wolf, i. 42 ; evidence of 
Josephus ; internal evidence, i. 43 ; 
lays collected by Pisistratus, i. 42- 
45 ; Nitsch, i. 44 ; Porson's observa- 
tions respecting use of digamma, i. 46 ; 



INDEX. 



357 



decision on internal evidence, i. 46 - 
49 ; personality not affected by poems 
not having been written, i. 46 ; unity 
of design best evidence ; denied by 
Wolf, i. 49 ; historical evidence of, 
no value against internal ; this seen 
by Lachmann ; his endeavours to 
disprove unity, i. 51 ; three points 
necessary to establish unity in, i. 52 ; 
verse of, sui generis ; not reduced 
by rule but ear, i. 53 ; the similes, 
character of ; variety of images in, 
i. 54 ; examples, i. 55 ; dramatic power 
of; not subjective, i. 56 ; high moral 
principle pervading,; not work of 
school,; Odyssey as uniform as 
Iliad, i. 57 ; difference between ; Ho- 
mer older when written ; sublimity 
equal, i. 59 ; moral same, i. 59, 60 ; 
metrical character, dissimilarity not 
sufficient to disprove identity, i. 60; 
unity of plan, i. 61 ; comparison of 
plot; Iliad, the argument of, i. 62 ; 
probable origin of his poems, i. 84 ; 
probable date of, i. 85 ; not written ; 
collected by Solon ; again by Pisis- 
tratus, i. 86 ; Wolf's judgment upon, 
i. 91 ; is the story of, fabulous? i. 92 ; 
story based on traditions of yEolic 
settlement in Troad, i. 93 ; what por- 
tions of, historical, i. 94 ; trust reposed 
in him as historian by Thucydides 
and Strabo, i. 96 ; esteemed by Hero- 
dotus one of framers of Grecian my- 
thology ; character of his mythology, 
i. 98 ; reprobates human sacrifices, 
i. 101 ; hymns and minor poems 
attributed to ; their number ; epi- 
gram, i. 123 ; undoubtedly spurious ; 
not admitted as genuine by Alex- 
andrian grammarians; words in, not 
found in Iliad or Odyssey ; geogra- 
phical incongruities, i. 124; Proe- 
mia ; the Batrachomyomachia ; Mar- 
gites ; character of; when written, 
i. 125 ; his love of the beautiful in 
nature, ii. 3 ; his accuracy, ii. 7 ; used 
as an argument against, personality 
of, ii. 8. 
Homeric age, time of Jewish monarchy; 
i. 95 ; esteemed patriarchal, i. 96 ; 
intermediate between barbarism and 
refinement; simplicity of ; commerce 
and science, i. 97 ; parallelism not 
exact; religion of, i. 98 ; human sacri- 
fices reprobated by Homer, temples 
not common, i. 101 ; sacrifices in open 
air ; king's priests ; priests attached 
VOL. II. 



to localities ; hero-worship not exist- 
ing ; first appears in Hesiod, i. 102 ; 
seers and oracles ; auguric dreams, 
influence of ; the future state, i. 103, 

104 ; government in ; monarchy he- 
reditary ; authority from Zeus, i. 104; 
council ; popular assembly ; Thucy- 
dides' account of these monarchies, i. 

105 ; sceptres, no crowns ; no female 
sovereigns ; constitutional rights ; 
compensation for murder ; capital pu- 
nishment, stoning; hospitality sacred, 
i. 106; domestic manners of; cha- 
racter of ; censure of Horace unde- 
served ; banquets not intemperate, i. 
107; the libation; war, how car- 
ried on, i. 108 ; horrors of, described 
by Priam and wife of Meleager ; ex- 
emplified by language of warriors ; in- 
secure state of society ; piracy, man- 
ners of, compared with those of mid- 
dleages, i. 109; love, howinfluenced 
by Christianity ; position of female 
sex, i. 110 ; respect shown to ; offices 
of ; virtue and accomplishments of, i. 
Ill; household, numerous ; poly- 
gamy not existing among Greeks but at 
Troy, children submissive to parents ; 
marriages, i. 112 ; the hero ; old age ; 
death ; funeral ; science in its in- 
fancy ; astronomy, compared with 
that of Job, i. 113 ; use of; geo- 
graphical knowledge in, 115; ac- 
curacy of, i. 116; musical know- 
ledge ; diseases sent by gods in- 
curable ; wounds by men curable ; 
surgical knowledge and practice, its 
simplicity, i. 1 16; arithmetical know- 
ledge in ; decimals unknown ; art in, 
flourishing, capacity of Ionian race 
for ; Homeric poems, evidence of ; 
oratory, i. 117 ; musical science in ; 
the harp; flute; harmony; statuary 
not practised in ; statues wrought in 
metal ; painting, no traces ot ; co- 
lour, how used, i. 118 ; conceptions 
of, not realizable even by modern 
art ; examples of art in poems, 
i. 119; useful arts of ; agriculture ; 
working in metals ; fishing ; tools ; 
writing not unknown ; art of war in, 
i. 120 ; constitution of army ; officers; 
chariots ; the battle-cry ; military 
service compulsory; cities fortified; 
i. 121; ships, character of; society 
in; mixed state of, i. 122. 

Homeric spirit of three great Greek 
tragedians, i. 285. 

A A 



358 



INDEX. 



Homeric lays orally banded down, i. 45, 

86. 
Homeridae of Chios, i. 
Horace, his praises of Mimnermus and 
Callimachus,i.l38; opinion of iambic 
metre, i. 146 ; imitates Archilochus; 
i. 147 ; takes Alcaeus for his model, 
i. 174 ; his criticism on Pindar, i. 
202 ; his estimation of dramatic cho- 
rus, i. 271 ; quotation from, illustra- 
tive of descriptive powers of iEschyr 
lus; quotation from, respecting num- 
ber of actors in scene, i. 363 ; duty 
of making drama instructive, recog- 
nised by, i. 371 ; examples of, i. 372; 
allusion to strolling players in his 
epistle to the Pisos, ii. 15 ; asserts 
that Plautus imitated Epicharmus, ii. 
16; opinion of poetic inspiration from 
wine, ii. 27 ; quotation from, ii. 93 ; 
allusion to doctrines of Aristippus, ii. 
210. 
Hylas, see Sirius. 
Hymeneal song, the, i. 25. 
Hymns, first poems, i. 22 ; first lite- 
rature of Greece ; to the Sun-God ; 
burden of, i. 23 ; when used in pri- 
vate life, i. 25 ; called Proemia, i. 
88 ; the Homeric, i. 123 ; the Or- 
phic,!. 213. 
Hyperbolus, his eloquence ; abuse of, 

ii. 112. 
Hyperborean, Abaris an ; import of 

epithet, i, 216. 
Hyperides, style of, how characterized 
by Cicero, ii. 131 ; little known of; 
friend of Demosthenes ; pupil of 
Plato and Isocrates, ii. 145 ; his wit; 
opponent of Philip ; his integrity ; 
flies from Athens, ii. 146; killed at 
iEgina ; his orations ; Longinus' 
opinion of his style, ii. 147. 
Hyporcheme, a choral song, i. 162 ; its 
character, i. 163. 

Iacchus, son of Demeter, i. 277 ; pro- 
cessions and revelry in honour of; 
worship of, how united to that of Dio- 
nysus, illustration from chorus in the 
Antigone, i. 278- 

Iadmon emancipates ^Esop, i. 151. 

Iambic poetry, origin of, i. 137 ; in- 
vented by Archilochus, i. 145; con- 
nected with worship of Demeter, i. 
145 ; peculiarly Ionian, i. 146 ; of 
Sappho, i. 180. 

Ibycus of Rhegium, lyric poet, epithet 
of; legend of, i. 187. 



Iliad, legends of, iEolian, i. 34 ; stern 
moral lesson contained in, i. 37 ; dif- 
ference from Odyssey ; similarity in, 
perceived by Longinus, i. 39 ; argu- 
ment of; wrath of Achilles, i. 62 ; 
shown in two ways, i. 74 ; Achilles, 
hero of; unity of plan in, i. 75 ; fu- 
neral of Hector, why inserted in, i. 
76 ; interpolations in, difficult to de- 
tect, i. 88 -, what may be so consider- 
ed, i. 89. 
India, philosophy of, how connected 
with that of Greece, the Brahmans of, 
i. 233 ; dramatic performances from 
earlier period, i. 269. 
Indo-European race, languages of, co- 
piousness of; power of inflexion, power 
of accommodation to thought and 
feeling, i. 4 ; their effect on Greeks, 
i. 5. 
Indo-Germanic races, taste for dra- 
matic literature in, i. 268. 
Inheritance, Athenian law of, subject of 

orations of Isaeus, ii. 133. 
Inscriptions, why elegiac metre used for, 

i. 139. 
Interpolations of Diasceuastae;not easily 
detected ; grounds for decision respect- 
ing, i. 88 ; what may be so esteemed 
in Iliad, i. 89 ; in Odyssey, i. 90. 
Intervals in music, see Genera, i. 154. 
Ion, tiagic poet, native of Chios,i. 340; 
history of, lyric and fabulous, what ex- 
tant of ; epithet of Longinus, one of 
the canonical tragic poets, i. 340. 
Ionia, scenery of, described by Homer, 
i. 33 ; parent of dynamical philoso- 
phy, ii. 174. 
Ionian Greeks, struggle of, against Cy- 
rus, i. 2 ; time of their subjugation, in- 
habit 'sea- coast ; character of, i. 11 ; 
sheepskins, when used for writing by, 
43 ; their capacity for art, i. 117. 
Iophon, son of Sophocles, makes accu- 
sation against his father, i. 309 ; ob- 
tains tragic wreath, i. 342. 
Iranian race, its origin and progress, i. 
3; influence on language and litera- 
ture of Greece, i. 4. 
Isaeus, little known of ; son of Diago- 
ras, ii. 132 ; birthplace uncertain ; 
his tutors ; style ; master of Demo- 
sthenes ; charge for tuition ; his ora- 
tions; their character, ii. 133. 
Islands, the Happy, described by Ho- 
mer ; by Hesiod, i. 132. 
Ismenias, one of the founders of Smyrna 
i. 35. 



INDEX. 



359 



Isocrates, his character of popular de- 
magogue, ii. 114; his composition ; 
Cicero's opinion of, ii. 122, 131 ; 

founder of the most flourishing school 
of rhetoric : his pupils : style. :i. 131 : 
native of Athens ; son of Theodoras ; 
first school at Chios ; Isasus, pupil of; 
death, ii. 132 ; not tutor of Demc- 
sthenes, ii 137 ; Hvperides, pupil of, 
ii. 145 ; his contest with Aristotle, ii. 
276. 
Ithaca, scene of part of Odyssey, i. 68 ; 
how changed in appearance, i. 116. 

Jews, their early historical writings, ii. 
oU. 

Job, his astronomical knowledge com- 
pared with that of Homeric age, i. 
113. 

Jonson, Ben, his imitation of epigram 
of Euripides, i. 327. 

Josephus.his statement respee::::^ poe^s 
of Homer, i. 43. 

Knight, Paine, revives theory of sepa- 
rators, i. 40. 

I :s, the, of Aristophanes: attack on 
Cieon; CaJlistratus afraid to act in ; 
Aristophanes supports principal cha- 
racter in ; analysis of, ii. 36. 

Koppa, the letter, how compounded ; 
how recognizable after disuse, i. 13. 

Lacedsemon the Hollow, i. 68. 

Lachmann, most sagacious of modern 
critics ; endeavours to disprove unity 
of Homers poems : his opinion that 
the Iliad is made up of eighteen lavs, 
i. 50. 

Lamachus, how represented in Acharni- 
ans, ii. 35 ; in the Clouds, ii. 37. 

Language, its connexion with literature ; 
two great divisions of; comparison 
of, with sculpture; the Greek, its ori- 
gin, harmony, variety, and fitness for 
poe~: to oral transmission, i. 

6 ; addressed to the ear ; its grammar, 
i. 7 ; result of regular plan, i. 8 ; how 
caaracter of the 
country ; origin of, i. 9 ; facility of 
composition in, i. 191 ; the Pelasgic, 
its character and affinities, i. 9 ; the 
Latin resembles Greek in earliest 
phase, L 10 ; Hellenic, its introduc- 
tion into Greece, i. 10 ; amalgama- 
tion with Pelasgic ; the German, fa- 
cility of composition compared with 
Greek, i. 191. 



Languages, of ancient Europe, the ori- 
gin of; vocabulary and grammatical 
structure of; alphabet of~ and me ins 
of committing t^em to writing, i. 4 ; 
the classical, varied inflexion of, in 
sense and sound ; philosophic exact- 
ness of ; Mailer's comparison with 
the modern, i.5 ; their relative adap- 
tation to poetry. L 6. 
Laws, written in verse ; application of 
word lifjtA? to, i. 207 ; against licence 
of comic poets, ii. 22 ; limiting ages 
of public orators, ii. 132. 
Lavs, Homeric ; poems compiled from, 

i". 41. 
Leake, Col., finds Homer a topographi- 
cal guide, ii. 7. 
Lee -singers, why so called, ii. 15. 
Lenaea. Di: ival of, when ce- 

lebrated, i. 356 : place, why so called, 
i. 357. 
Lesbian poets, character of their lyrics, 

L 161. 
^t :".:es of Lesbos, cyclic poet, i. 136. 
Letters, transition from Semitic to Greek, 
:. 15 ; the Greek, Donaldson's the- 
ory of : difficulties respecting it, i. 18 ; 
at first sixteen ; how long that num- 
ber used, i. 19. 
Leucadian promontory, the ; leap of 
Sappho from ; origin of legend, i. 180. 
Linus, hymns to, their character, i. 23; 
when sung, i. 24 ; hymn of, sung in 
Egypt, i. 24; similar traditions to 
those of, i. 25. 
Literature, classical, its era, i. 1 : two 
divisions of Grecian ; connexion of 
language with ; its character ; origin 
of; vehicles for, amongst ancient 
Greeks ; poetry, earliest species of, 
i. 20 ;. none before Homer ; of mon- 
archical age ; of free institutions, 
i. 137 ; its change from poetry to prose, 
i. 205: causes of; how affected by 
political changes, i. 206 ; influence 
of Chthoman worship upon, i. 213 ; 
offspring of Ionian mind, i. 216 ; 
prose, how wrought out of poetry, 
i. 217 ; philosophy similar in origin 
to, L 235 ; resemblance of, to na- 
tional character ; different kinds of, 
i. 237 ; national, established in time 
of Pisistratus, i. 259 ; synchronous 
with appearance of drama, i. 261 ; 
its origin, i. 267 : not Semitic, i. 
269. 

, Greek, truthfulness, essence 

of, ii. 11 ; eloquence, characteristic of. 
A A 2 



360 



INDEX. 



ii. 108 ; classical era of, closes with 
Aristotle, ii. 329. 

Litotes, grammatical figure ; its common 
use, indicates truthfulness of Greek 
mind, ii. 12. 

Liturgies, the theatrical, i. 359. 

Lochus, term applied to chorus by ^s- 
chylus, i. 361. 

Logographers, their work, i. 217 ; how 
esteemed ; works of, not historical, 
i. 218. 

Longinus, opinion of unity of Iliad and 
Odyssey, i. 39 ; his opinion of Ion, 
i. 340. 

, example of rhythm of De- 
mosthenes, ii. 120 ; panegyric on De- 
mosthenes, ii. 142; opinion of style 
of Hyperides, ii. 147. 

Love, its character in Homeric age ; 
how influenced by Christianity, i. 1 10; 
first introduced as principal element 
of drama by Euripides, i. 325. 

Lucian, date for death of Epicharmus, 
ii. 17; his account of longevity of 
Pherycides, ii. 52 ; states history of 
Herodotus to have been written at 
Halicarnassus, ii. 58. 

Lycurgus, noble Athenian, son of Lyco- 
phron ; pupil of Plato and Isocrates, 
friend of Demosthenes ; his talents 
and integrity, ii. 149; anecdote of, 
told by Plutarch, rewards given to ; 
his orations, their character, ii. 150. 

Lydian, the, mode in music, i. 155. 

Lyric, poetry, peculiarly Dorian, i. 146 ; 
its character, i. 152; relations to reli- 
gion and private life, i. 159 ; schools 
of, how distinguished ; religious cere- 
monials, effect of, upon ; influence of 
Asia on that of iEolians ; character- 
istic of solemnity, i. 160; the out- 
pouring of the heart ; of the Lesbians ; 
the choral, to whom sung ; how ac- 
companied ; different kinds of, i. 162 ; 
their character, i. 163 ; of the Dori- 
ans, i. 168 ; poets, the, i. 171 ; 
canon of Alexandrian grammarians, 
i. 171. 

Lyrical drama, mimetic not dramatic, 
i. 272. 

Lysias, son of Cephalus ; native of Cy- 
racuse ; goes with Herodotus to Thu- 
rii ; pupil of Tisias ; democratic, ii. 
128 ; exiled from Thurii, returns to 
Athens ; exiled by Thirty Tyrants ; 
lives at Megara ; returns to Athens ; 
his orations, number extant ; all but 
one written for clients ; their charac- 



ter, ii. 129; the ancients' admiration 
of ; effect of intercourse with Hero- 
dotus upon, ii. 130 ; style, how cha- 
racterised by Cicero, ii. 131. 
Lysistrata, of Aristophanes, has no para- 
basis, ii. 23; coarsest of Athenian 
comedies, ii. 42. 

Macedon, completes destruction of li- 
berties of Greece, i. 2; Euripides 
takes refuge in, i. 326. 

Magnes, comic writer ; mentioned in 
Knights of Aristophanes, ii. 25 ; small 
remains of his writings, ii. 26. 

Maneros, see Linus. 

Manners, the domestic, of Homeric a^e, 
i. 107. 

Manslaughter, how tried, i. 366 ; laws 
respecting, in Homeric age, i. 367. 

Margites, cyclic poem, i. 88 ; mock he- 
roic ; personal satire, i. 125. 

Mariner, use of astronomy to, i. 115. 

Marriage, in Homeric age, i. 112 ; 
Demosthenes' opinions respecting use 
of, i. 330. 

Martyrdom, Antigone, example of, 
i. 316. 

Matter, eternity of, i. 235. 

Matthiae, his opinion of poetry of Pho- 
cylides, i. 1 44 ; his date for Charon 
of Lampsacus, ii. 53 ; date of birth 
of Xenophon, ii. 94 ; of Parmenides, 
ii. 159. 

Mechanical theory of Ionian philoso- 
phy, its supporters, i. 241. 

Medicine, not practised in Homeric aare, 
i. 116. *' 

Megarian school of philosophy, founded 
by Euclides, ii. 218. 

Meledgenes, epithet of Homer, i. 33. 

Melissus, an Ionian ; native of Samos ; 
opinions derived from works of Eleatic 
school ; defeats Pericles in naval en- 
gagement ; his only work, its title ; 
sentiments similar to those of Xeno- 
phanes ; reasoning vague ; his philo- 
sophy, ii. 163; system, negative; phy- 
sical theories nearly coincide with 
those of Eleatic school, ii. 164. 

Memorabilia, of Xenophon ; afford view 
of practical side of Socratic philo- 
sophy, ii. 102 ; more accurate than 
that of Plato, ii. 103. 

Memory, power of, in Greeks, noticed 
by Plutarch ; in Calmucks, i. 47. 

Mena;chmi, comedy of Plautus, said by 
Horace to have been copied from 
Epicharmus, ii. 16. 



INDEX. 



361 



Menander, pupil of Theophrastus, his 
wit and wisdom ; small remains of 
his works ; reflected by Lucian ; fur- 
nished materials for Terence, ii. 330. 
Menelaus, actions of, in Iliad, i. 62 ; in 
Odyssey, i. 68 ; consistency in cha- 
racter of, i. 79. 
Metre, how influenced by grammar, i. 8 ; 
aid to memory, i. 21 ; change from 
the epic ; difference between epic and 
elegiac ; how originated ; comparison 
with heroic ; advance in art of, i. 139 ; 
iambic, the characteristic of rapidity ; 
elements of Attic drama contained in ; 
etymology of word, i. 145. 

Milton, an epic poet, i. 32 ; want of 
unity in works of, i. 39 ; quotations 
from, i. 132. 

Mimnermus, elegiac poet, praised by 
Horace, i. 138; date of; effect of 
political state of Ionia upon, i. 142 ; 
contrast to Anacreon, i. 188. 

Minstrels, see Bards. 

Mitchell, translations from Aristo- 
phanes, ii. 26,28, 31,116. 

Mnemosyne, Muses, why called daugh- 
ters of, i. 47. 

Modes in music, i. 155 ; the Dorian the 
oldest ; resembled national character ; 
M tiller's opinion of, i. 156 ; Lydian 
and Phrygian introduced by iEolians 
from Lesbos, gave refinement to 
Greek music, i. 157 ; Pindar's odes 
arranged according to, i. 203. 

Monarchy, favourable to preservation 
of historical records, ii. 51. 

Monks, of middle ages, historians of 
their own times, ii. 51. 

Monodies, odes sung by dramatis per- 
sons only, i. 361. 

Monotheism early religion of Greece, 
i. 97. 

Miiller, his comparison of ancient and 
modern languages, i. 5 ; opinions of 
poetry of Phocylides, i. 144 ; doubts 
respecting genuineness of fragments 
of Callinus preserved by Stobaeus, 
i. 140 ; attributes origin of Dorian 
religious music and poetry to Crete, 
i. 162 ; assertion respecting worship 
of Apollo, i. 165 ; fragment of Phere- 
cydes quoted by, i. 229 ; his arrange- 
ment of characters in tragic drama, 
i. 363 ; his chronological arrange- 
ment of tragedies of Sophocles ; his 
arrangement of dramatic chorus, il- 
lustrated from Eumenides and Ores- 
teian trilogy, i. 360. 



Miiller, terms Herodotus the Homer of 
history, ii. 55. 

Mure, Colonel, his observations on Ly- 
cian sculptures, in Mycenae, i. 30. 

Musaeus, a bard, i. 27 ; a Thracian, i. 
28 ; son of Orpheus ; migrates to 
Athens ; typical connection of name, 
i. 29. 

Muses, names of the nine, given to 
books of Herodotus, ii. 67 ; Phile- 
mon's vision of, ii. 331. 

Music, knowledge of, in Homeric age ; 
instruments of; harmony in, i. 118 ; 
changed to suit change in poetry, i. 
138 ; theory of, amongst ancient 
Greeks, i, 152 ; subject obscure ; dif- 
ferent from modern, i. 155 ; intro- 
duced into philosophy, i. 252 ; be- 
comes more important in Greek thea- 
tre, i. 354 ; of Christian church, how 
changed with progress of art, i. 359. 

Mysteries, the, i. 213. 

Mythology in Greece, its connection 
with local scenery, i. 22 ; its influence 
on philosophy, i. 230 ; why chosen in 
subjects of Greek tragedies, i. 368 ; 
its national character, i. 369. 

Narrative, extemporaneous, when intro- 
duced into chorus ; drama originated 
from ; originally consisted of legends, 
of Dionysus ; recited by satyrs, i. 
274. 

Necyia, descent into Hades ; second in 
Odyssey, interpolated, i. 77. 

Nestor, actions of, in Iliad, i. 64 ; and 
Odyssey, i. 68 ; consistency in cha- 
racter of, i. 79. 

Newton, Sir I., his date of Hesiod, i. 
130. 

Nicias, how introduced in Knights of 
Aristophanes, ii. 37 ; obtains informal 
vote of ecclesia ; fear of its fickle- 
ness, ii. 118. 

Niebuhr, his geography of Herodotus, 
ii. 70. 

Nineveh, sculptures of, historical, ii. 49. 

Nile, the river, rising of; how marked 
by the Egyptians, i. 24 ; mentioned 
by Hesiod ; called iEgyptus by Ho- 
mer, i. 131. 

Nitzsch, his opinion on mythology of 
Homer, i. 40; opposes Wolf, i. 44; 
supported by Ritschl, i. 45. 

Nome, a choral song, i. 162 ; its cha- 
racter, i. 1 63. 

Notation, musical, invented by Terpan- 
der, i. 157. 



362 



INDEX. 



Number, its influence on philosophy of 
Pythagoras, i. 252 ; Ritter's error re- 
specting, i. 254. 

O, the letter, long when introduced, a 
double letter, i. 17. 

Odes, of Sappho ; of Anacreon, i. 188 ; 
the epinician, of Pindar, i. 199 ; tra- 
gic, how divided and sung, i. 361. 

Odysseus, actions of, in Iliad, i. 64 ; 
Odyssey, i. 67. 

Odyssey, moral lesson contained in, i. 
37; conclusion of Iliad, i. 39; dif- 
fers in language and mythology from ; 
as uniform as, i. 57 ; evident from 
language that it has the same author ; 
difference from, observable ; Homer 
older when written, i. 58 ; beauty of 
its character, i. 59 ; moral of ; metre 
of, i. 60 ; theory of Longinus, re- 
specting ; plot more intricate than in 
Iliad, i. 61 ; argument of, i. 67 ; 
unity of plot; complexity of; di- 
gressions in, i. 76 : conclusion of, 
why necessary ; second Necyia in- 
terpolated, i. 77 ; interpolations in, 
what may be so considered, i. 90. 

(Economics of Xenophon, Socrates in- 
troduced in ; treatise on domestic 
management, ii. 104. 

CEdipus, character of ; not beyond rea- 
lization, i. 313 ; Coloneus, the date 
of, i. 315 ; scenery of Coloneus, de- 
scribed in, i. 347 ; use of eccyclema 
in, i. 353. 

■ ■ Coloneus, description of neigh- 
bourhood of Athens in ; accuracy of, 
ii. 16. 

Olen, a bard, i. 27 ; hymns of, to 
Apollo at Delos ; a Lycian, i. 28 ; 
a Hyperborean ; typifies foreign ori- 
gin of worship of Apollo, i. 30. 

Olympiads, calculation by, first adopted 
by Timseus, ii. 82. 

Olympus, a Phrygian ; story of, my- 
thical, said to have invented flute 
music, attached to worship of Cybele, 
i. 158. 

Opera, the modern, compared with 
Greek tragedy, i.. 364. 

Orations, written as rhetorical exercises, 
by one man for use of another, ii. 
122. 

Orators, the ten public ; law relating to 
age of, ii. 33 ; the Athenian philoso- 
phers, the rivals of, ii. 112 ; their au- 
dience, ii. 119 ; care in composition, 
ii. 121 ; knowledge necessary for, ii. 



122 ; not produced by the oligarchy 
of Sparta, ii. 124 ; the first of, who 
composed written orations ; earliest 
speeches of, extant, ii. 125 ; charac- 
teristics of Demosthenes, the greatest 
of, ii. 135 ; Dinarchus, last of, 
ii. 150. 

Oratory, cultivated in Homeric age, i. 
117 ; abused during Peloponnesian 
war, ii. Ill ; Athens, the field for, ii. 
112; life of Athenian citizen, favour- 
able to development of, ii. 113 ; im- 
portance of, to Athenians, ii. 123 ; 
flourished under democracy at Athens, 
ii. 124. 

Orchestra, in Greek theatre, how deco- 
rated, i. 354 ; what it represented in 
the Eumenides, i. 354 ; in the Sup- 
pliants ; in the Agamemnon, i. 355. 

Orchomenian inscription, mentioning 
dramatic performances, i. 272. 

Oresteian trilogy, Miiller's arrange- 
ment of chorus in, i. 361 ; of charac- 
ters, i. 363. 

Orestes, legend of, subject of trilogy of 
iEschylus, i. 295 ; legend of, relating 
to feast of A nthesteria, i. 357 ; blood- 
guilt exemplified in character of, i. 
367. 

Orpheus, a bard, i. 27 ; his hymns to 
Apollo ; a Thracian ; power of his 
lyre, i. 28 ; celebrates worship of Dio- 
nysus Zagreus ; character of litera- 
ture attributed to, i. 29 ; killed by 
bacchanals, i. 277. 

Ovid, epistle of Sappho to Phaon, i. 
180. 

Paean, the earliest choral ode ; to whom 
sung ; name otherwise applied ; sung 
by Achaeans ; of Phrygian origin, 
i. 162. 

Painting, not known in Homeric age, 
i. 118. 

Palestine, the grapes of, i. 276. 

Palilia, festivals in honour of Diana, 
i. 186. 

Pallas, in the Eumenides, representative 
of mercy, i. 298, 300. 

Panathenaic festival, restored by Pisi- 
stratus, i. 261. 

Pantheism, i. 245 ; theological creed of 
Ionian school, i. 247. 

Panyasis, epic poet, uncle of Herodotus, 
put to death by Lygdamis, ii. 63. 

Parabasis, almost universal, but not 
essential ; its character ; origin ; di- 
visions ; unconnected with subject of 



INDEX. 



363 



comedy, ii. 23 ; incongruity of, not 
perceived by Athenians, ii. 24. 

Paris, actions of, in Iliad, i. 62 ; con- 
sistency in character of, i. 80. 

Parmenides, different accounts re- 
specting, ii. 158; native of Elea; 
most celebrated philosopher of that 
school ; pupil of Xenophanes ; birth 
of ; his laws ; his poem ; his philoso- 
phy, ii. 159 ; its divisions ; his view 
of human nature ; Zeno, disciple of; 
Empedocles, disciple of; Aristotle's 
account of, ii. 160. 

Paros, worship of Demeter at ; Iambic 
verse connected with, i. 145. 

Parode, the first ode in a lyric composi- 
tion, «i. 361. 

Parthenia, a choral song, i. 162 ; cha- 
racter of, i. 163. 

Passow, his date for Charon of Lamp- 
sacus, ii. 53. 

Pastoral poetry, i. 185 ; its origin ; the 
earliest Sicilian, i. 186. 

Patroclus, actions of, in Iliad, i. 65. 

Paul, St., Epimenides quoted by, i.215. 

Pausanias, his account of death of 
Thucydides, ii. 79. 

Peace, the comedy of Aristophanes ; 
object, same as Acharnians; analysis 
of, ii. 41. 

Pelasgi, the oldest inhabitants of 
Greece ; affinity of language to 
Sanscrit and Latin, i. 9 ; little known 
of; mark progress of civilization in 
Europe and Asia ; Herodotus' account 
of; inhabit all Hellas ; builders set- 
tle in Lemnos ; of same origin as 
Hellenes, i. 12 ; gods of, had no 
name, i. 97. 

Pelasgians, the Tyrrhenian, Pythagoras' 
descent from, i. 249. 

Peneiope, actions of, in Odyssey, i. 68 ; 
character of, i. 82. 

Periander, tyrant of Corinth, one of 
the Seven Sages, i. 208 ; his charac- 
ter ; the friend and patron of wise 
men, i. 209. 

Pericles, his opinion of Sophocles, i. 308. 

, policy of, commended by 

Thucydides, ii. 83 ; celebrated by 
Cicero for eloquence, ii. Ill ; his 
flattery of Demus ; defeated by 
Melissus, ii. 163 ; by his policy gave 
Socrates opportunity to teach, ii. 
186 ; his son, Socrates' hope of, how 
frustrated, ii. 188. 

Peripatetic school, founded by Aristotle, 
ii. 207 ; why so called, ii. 278. 



Perrault, his theory respecting Iliad and 
Odyssey, i. 41. 

Persae, use of thymele in tragedy of, 
1.354. ° y ' 

Persian war, its effect on poetry, i. 
195. 

Persians, the tragedy of; earliest in 
iEschylus ; second in trilogy ; sub- 
ject of, i. 293. 

Phaedo, the, of Plato ; conversations of 
Socrates on immortality of soul em- 
bodied in, ii. 194. 

Pherecydes, sacerdotal poet of Scyros 
i. 214 ; his philosophy, Pythagorean, 
i. 215 ; wrote on parchment, i. 228; 
first treated of philosophy in prose ; 
account of, by Herodotus and Aris- 
totle ; fragment of, quoted by M'uller, 
i. 229. 

of Leros, historian ; resides 

at Athens ; his longevity ; history, 
traditional, ii. 52. 

Philammon, a Delphian bard, i. 27 ; 
hymns to Apollo, i. 28 ; son of Apollo, 
i. 29. 

Philemon, comic poet,ii. 330 ; vision of 
departure of the Muses, ii. 331. 

Philip, king of Macedon, his contest 
with Athens ; opposition of Demo- 
sthenes to, ii. 138 ; treachery of 
JEschinesin favour of, ii. 139 ; friend- 
ship for Aristotle ; its consequences, 
ii. 277. 

Phillips, Ambrose, translation of ode 
of Sappho, i. 178,179. 

Philoctetes, tragedy of Sophocles ; cha- 
racter of, i. 314 ; date of, i. 315 ; 
scenery in, i. 347. 

Philosophy, Athens, the home of, i. 3 ; 
Ionian school of, founded by Thales ; 
its two systems ; its professors, i. 241 ; 
of Thales, i. 242 ; Anaximander, i. 
243 ; Anaximenes, i. 244; influence 
of elements in, i. 244 ; of Heraclitus, 
i. 245 ; of Pythagoras in Magna 
Graecia, i. 248 ; school of, at Crotona, 
i. 251 ; at Elea, i. 256 ; the Greek 
origin, not external, i. 226 ; three 
influences exciting to development 
of, i. 226 ; origin of, traced, i. 227 ; 
of Pherecydes, 229 ; influence of 
mythology upon, i. 230 ; moral, first 
traceable in apophthegms of sages, 
i. 230 ; system necessary to, i. 231 ; 
not traceable till Thales, i. 232 ; 
Oriental origin of Greek, by whom 
insisted on, i. 233 ; nature of resem- 
blance, historical connexion not ne- 



364 



INDEX. 



cessary, i. 233 ; not partially derived 
from Eastern, i. 234 ; Oriental, doc- 
trines of, when introduced into 
Greece, i. 236 ; resemblance in origin 
of, to literature, i. 236 ; progress of 
schools ; contrast between Ionian 
and Dorian, i. 238 ; superiority of 
Ionian, i. 240 ; of Eleatic school 
negative, i. 258. 

Philosophy, of the Greeks, flourished 
later than literature ; its infancy ; 
matured by Socrates, ii. 152 ; natural, 
worthless, ii. 169 ; progression, the 
law of, ii. 170 ; moral and mental, of 
the Greeks, of unchangeable value ; 
schools of, dynamical and mechani- 
cal ; review of, ii. 174; sophistical, 
the rise of, ii. 174; Academic, Peripa- 
tetic, ii. 207; Cyrenaic, ii. 209; 
Cynic, ii. 218. 

Philosophers of Ionian school ; succes- 
sion and relation of, arbitrary, i. 243. 

Phocylides of Miletus, elegiac poet, i. 
144 ; distich of; paraphrased by Por- 
son, i. 145. 

Phoenicia, letters brought by Cadmus 
from; its early connexion with Greece; 
worship of Dionysus introduced to 
Greece from ; commerce of the East 
flowed through, i, 275. 

Phoenicians, the tragedy of Phrynicus 
omitted by Suidas, i. 281. 

Phoenician names prevalent in Bceotia, 
i. 128. 

Phormis, contemporary with Epichar- 
mus ; native of Arcadia ; resides at 
Syracuse ; first uses costume for 
actors ; titles of works still extant, 
principally mythological, ii. 17. 

Photius, the Byzantine, preserves analy- 
sis of Natural History of India and 
Oriental History of Ctesias, ii. 107. 

Phrygian, the mode in music, i. 155. 

Phrynicus, changes made by, in chorus, 
i. 281 ; effect of his tragedy ; enume- 
ration of works by Suidas ; the Phoe- 
nicians omitted ; his talent ; intro- 
ducer of female characters, i. 281 ; 
quotation from i. 311. 

Picture-writing, how merged in alpha- 
betic, i. 14,44. 

Pieria, where situated ; country of the 
bards, i. 28. 

Pierians, settlement of, on Mount Heli- 
con, i. 28 ; Xerxes finds their for- 
tresses in Thrace, i. 128. 

Pindar, Boeotian poet, i. 128 ; asserts 
personality of Homer, i. 38 ; repre- 



sents priestly creed, i. 287 ; com- 
pared with Simonides, i. 191 ; con- 
temporary with iEschylus, schools 
different; the last of Dorian lyric 
poets, i. 193 ; political state of 
Greece in time of; born at Cynosce- 
phalae ; origin of his poetry, i. 195 ; 
father, a flute-player, i. 196 ; consul 
for Athens at Thebes, i. 197 ; patro- 
nised by Hiero ; his character and 
poetry ; the epinician odes of, i. 199 ; 
Corinna's advice to, i. 200 ; religious 
character of, i. 201 ; criticism of Ho- 
race upon his metres, i. 202 ; furnish 
guide to classification of modes ; ar- 
rangement of his odes arbitrary, i. 
203. . 

Pisistratus, son of Hipparchus, i. 212 ; 
tyrant of Athens ; national literature 
established in time of, i. 259 ; his 
character and government ; leader of 
anti-aristocratic party ; restorer of 
Panathenaic festival ; collector of 
poems of Homer ; fostered Attic 
drama, i. 261 ; eloquence of, cele- 
brated by Cicero, ii. 111. 

Pittacus, example of scolia by, i. 169 ; 
one ot Seven Sages, i. 208 ; ofMity- 
lene, i. 209 ; his character ; his 
apophthegm ; his works, i. 210. 

Plague, at Athens, comedy of Banquet- 
ers, how relating to, 34. 

Plato, asserts personality of Homer, i 
38 ; calls Archilochus wisest o 
poets, i. 147 ; notices jEsop, i. 150 
his list of Seven Sages, i. 208; ac 
count of Eleatic doctrines, i. 257; 
terms Epicharmus and Homer, first 
founders of comedy and tragedy, 
ii. 17 ; his account of Socrates, de- 
ficiency in, supplied by Xenophon; 
identity of sentiment with Socrates, 
ii. 102 ; his Socrates, an ideal charac- 
ter, ii. 103; eloquence of, ii. 109 ; Hy- 
perides, pupil of, ii. 145 ; Lycurgus, 
pupil of, ii. 1 49 ; his account of Parme- 
nides, ii. 159 ; his opinion of sophists, 
ii. 183; his Phasdo, Socrates' conver- 
sation on immortality of soul embodied 
in, ii. 194 ; his view of philosophy of 
Socrates, ii. 198 ; founds academic 
school, ii. 207 ; information respect- 
ing his life, not trustworthy ; birth- 
place uncertain ; descent illustrious ; 
real name ; why so called ; legends 
of; early taste for poetry ; pupil of 
Cratylus ; disciple of Socrates ; re- 
semblance of his philosophy to the 



INDEX. 



365 



Oriental ; his travels ; military ser- 
vice ; retires to Megara on death of 
Socrates ; visits Sicily ; witnesses 
truption of Etna ; gives gratuitous 
instruction in the academy ; second 
voyage to Sicily with Dio ; returns 
to Athens; third voyage to Sicily, 
object of, unsuccessful, ii. 22*2 ; his 
death ; epigram on. by Speusippus ; 
not altogether indebted to Socrates 
for his philosophy ; became acquaint- 
ed with that of Pythagoras in Italy; 
avoids extremes of Ionian and Eleatic 
schools ; combines the labours of his 
predecessors; observations of Schleier- 
niacher on prevailing errors respect- 
ing his dialogues, ii. 223 ; idea that 
there is no system in his philosophy; 
bis system, the development of one 
idea ; keystone of his creed, all spi- 
ritual essence the same, idea pre- 
valent, that his private teaching ex- 
plained his dialogues, why to have 
been expected, ii. 224 ; analogy from 
Christian tradition; no historical au- 
thority for ; testimony of Aristotle 
negative but satisfactory ; philosophy 
of, first attempt to systematize previous 
discoveries followed by Aristotle in 
this, 225 ; his comprehensive view 
of ancient philosophy ; exquisite 
beauty of his style ; Cicero's opinion 
of, ii. 226 ; the Aristophanic comedy, 
his model for ; follows Socrates in 
use of dialogues ; Schlegel's observa- 
tion on those of; dramatic character 
of, ii. 227; exaggerated by Aristo- 
phanes and Thrasyllus ; dialogues, 
opinion that they were parts of one 
system, ii. 228; his style and method 
compared with those of Aristotle, ii. 
281. 
Plato, the works of, difficulty attend- 
ing arrangement of ; spurious writ- 
ings ; those extant contain mate- 
rials for analysis of his system ; 
those not considered genuine by So- 
cher, Aste, and Schleiermacher, ii. 
229; attempt to arrange in chronologi- 
cal order ; this only to be determined 
by internal evidence; principles of ; 
revised by him, ii. 230 ; testimony of 
Dionysius to the fact ; his latest 
works exhibit less imaginative 
power; in decision of chronological 
order, evidence of intellectual pro- 
gress most important, ii. 231 ; not mere 
development of Socratic philosophy ; 



arrangement of Schleiermacher most 

probable ; arranged in three classes, 
h. 233. 

Plato, the Politics of, arrangements 
opposed by Aristotle, ii. 317 ; his idea 
of philosophy generally ; of unity; its 
results ; definition of science, ii. 235 ; 
distinction between wisdom and phi- 
losophy; learning the representative of 
wisdom; object of, ii. 236; duty of man, 
according to : similarity to Christian 
doctrine ; his consciousness of im- 
perfection in, ii. 237 ; practical nature 
of; threefold division of; use of term 
dialectic in /divisions of, closely in- 
terwoven; examples of, ii. 239. 

, the Dialectic of, refutes in it the 

erroneous doctrines of his predeces- 
sors : stands between materialism and 
idealism ; basis of the physical, ii.241 ; 
definition of true science ; mutability 
of the sensible ; meaning of word 
idea in, ii. 242; types how understood 
in; idealism of, not modern conceptu- 
alism, ii. 243 ; equally opposed to the 
doctrines of the Sophistic and Eleatic 
schools : God the supreme idea in, ii. 
245 ; impressions of personality of the 
Deity contained in; doctrine of re- 
miniscence, ii. 245 ; revelation conse- 
quent upon, ii. 246 ; belief in immor- 
tality of soul implied in, ii. 246. 
-, the Physics of, most systematic 



statement from Timsus; inclination to 
dictrines of Pythagoras ; inferiority to 
dialectics ; development of system ; 
the intelligent First Cause ; idea of 
perfection contained in : illustrated by 
geometrical analogies, ii. 248 ; theory 
of human soul contained in, first sug- 
gested by Thales,ii. 249; Pythagorean 
views on migrations ; views of Socrates 
identical with, analysis of; the link be- 
tween the divine and the human ; ar- 
guments for immortality of soul con- 
tained in, ii. 251 ; idea of perfection 
consequent upon, ii. 253 ; principle 
of love, how introduced into, ii. 253; 
consequences of this doctrine ; com- 
pared with expressions of St. Paul, ii. 
254 ; connection traced throughout 
between knowledge and immortality ; 
effect of, on Cato and Cicero ; em- 
bellished with mythical and poetical 
representations, ii. 255 ; doctrine of 
ghosts, of transmigration, of rewards 
and punishments in a future state, 
and free will, contained in, ii. 256. 



366 



INDEX. 



Plato, the Ethics of, importance given 
to ; resemblance to Socrates in physi- 
cal science ; subservient to ; final 
cause in both the same ; moral object 

j in phenomena of nature, ii. 257 ; 
three subjects of investigation con- 
tained in ; idea of the supreme good 
in, opposed to view of Democritus, ii. 
258 ; classification of pleasure in ; 
inconsistencies in ; practical rather 
than theoretical; theory of ; impos- 
sible in practice, ii. 259 ; substitutes 
harmony for perfection ; enlists plea- 
sure on the side of virtue ; idea of the 

. good absolute ; special goods how ar- 
ranged, ii. 260 ; idea of virtue arises 
from that of good ; difficulty of main- 
taining connexion ; divisions of vir- 
tue, ii. 261 ; position of justice in ; 
connecting link between ethics and 
politics ; politics ; analogy between a 
man and state ; consequences of press- 
ing it too far, ii. 262. 

, the Republic of, less extravagant 

to the Greeks than to us : similarity 
of, with Dorian institutions ; ideas of 
personal independence of Thucydides, 
contrasted with those in, ii. 263 ; 
analogy found to our modern commu- 
nism ; three orders of state, their cor- 
respondence to three parts of soul, ii. 
264 ; effect produced on, by political 
state of Athens ; importance of edu- 
cation in ; mixed forms of government 
preferred; this modification found 
in treatise on Laws, ii. 265 ; educa- 
tion physical as well as mental ; fear 
of aesthetic refinement manifested in ; 
restrictions on fine arts ; numbers, 
his theory of, two ideas observable in, 
ii. 267 ; mysterious properties assigned 
to numbers groundless ; analogy be- 
tween music and social relations use- 
less ; examples of latter, ii. 268. 
-, the Cratylus of, only work on 



nature of language ; theory not appa- 
rent ; subject of dialogue ; Cratylus 
the chief speaker ; follows the system 
of Heraclitus, ii. 269 ; conformity of 
names with things; jesting illustra- 
tions of, ii. 270 ; partial correspon- 
dence of this view with philosophy of 
Plato ; this doctrine supported by 
Cratylus ; opposed by Heraclitus ; 
maintains that language is conven- 
tional ; no natural connexion between 
words and things, ii. 271. 
Pliny notices magnitude of grapes of 



Palestine, i. 276 ; says history of 

Herodotus, written at Thurii, ii. 58. 

Plot, the unity of, in poems of Homer 
recognised by Aristotle, i. 74. 

Plutarch, his life of Homer, i. 35 ; his 
story of iEsop, i. 151 ; reckons only 
five Sages, i. 208 ; his application of 
proverb relating to Dionysus, i. 274 ; 
anecdote of Sophocles, i. 308 ; his 
accusations against Herodotus, ii. 62 ; 
preserves fragments of history of 
Ctesias, ii. 105. 

Plutus, comedy of Aristophanes ; exam- 
ple of middle comedy; moral of; 
analysis of, ii. 47. 

Poetry, the earliest species of literature ; 
language of passion and imagination ; 
united to music and religion, i. 20 ; 
devotion of Greeks embodied in ; how 
influenced by physical character of 
country, i. 21; definition of, by Strabo, 
i. 23 ; united to music and dancing, 
i. 26 ; subjects of ; what deities con- 
nected with, i. 27; the only literature 
of monarchical age ; epic, developes 
the fine arts, i. 137 ; change in con- 
sequence of introduction of commerce 
into Greece, i. 138 ; lyric, its charac- 
ter convivial ; religious, i. 160; bu- 
colic or pastoral, i. 185 ; change in, 
after Persian war, i. 194 ; of Bceotia 
not indigenous ; of Semitic nations ; 
of Pindar, originated in worship of 
Dionysus, i. 195 ; natural language 
of emotions and imagination, i. 204 ; 
the Orphic, i. 214 ; how transmuted 
into prose, i. 217 ; later epic, didac- 
tic, i. 218 ; influence of, on philoso- 
phy, i. 226 ; the language of inspira- 
tion, i. 228 ; epic contrasted with the 
drama, i. 262 ; characteristic of, i. 
263 ; combination of lyric and epic 
in ; drama of Hebrews exclusively 
lyric, i. 268. 

Poets, the, epic, i. 32; small number of 
epic, i. 83 ; cyclic, title why given, 
i. 135 ; what it includes ; subjects of 
poems ; not title of inferiority ; why 
so used by Horace, i. 136 ; the lyric, 
i. 171 ; the sacerdotal, i. 214 ; the 
dramatic, i. 280 ; the Greek, their 
accuracy in description, ii. 2 ; de- 
light in softer beauties of nature; 
euphemism of, ii, 3 ; guides of na- 
tional taste ; justified in selecting 
beauties for description, ii. 5 ; the 
comic, their character and influence, 
ii. 21. 



INDEX. 



367 



Poetry of Greece, Herodotus deeply im- 
bued with, ii. 64. 

Polemo, succeeds Xenocrates at the 
Academy, ii. 272. 

Politics, influence of, on philosophy, 
i. 226. 

Polycrates, patron of Anacreon, i. 188. 

Porson, his observations on the di- 
gamma, i. 46. 

Poseidon, actions of, in Iliad, i. 64 ; 
confidence in destiny, i. 99. 

Pratinas, a Phlian tragic writer; after 
him tragedy exclusively Athenian, 
i. 283. 

Priam, actions of, in Iliad, i. 67 ; de- 
scribes horrors of war, i. 109. 

Priesthood, tendency of, to preserve his- 
toric records, ii. 5. 

Prodicus instructs Euripides in rhetoric, 
i. 324 ; sophist and teacher of rheto- 
ric, ii. 111. 

Proemia, cyclic hymns, ii. 88 ; why so 
called, i. 125. 

Prologue, skill of Euripides in ; not 
much used by Sophocles; never by 
iEschylus, i. 331 ; first speech in 
drama so called, i. 361. 

Prometheus Bound, tragedy of iEschy- 
lus; analysis of, i. 294; scenery in, 
i. 347. 

Prose, more logical and exact than poe- 
try, i. 20 ; not only an effort of genius 
but of reason, i. 204 ; how intro- 
duced ; facility afforded by, i. 205 ; 
origin of, i. 217 ; historical and philo- 
sophical tendency of, i. 218 ; infancy 
of, i. 246. 
Prosodia, a choral song, i. 162 ; charac- 
ter of, i. 163. 
Protagoras, of Abdera, sophist and 
teacher of rhetoric ; demand for finish - 
ing education of Athenian gentlemen, 
ii. 179 ; doctrines refuted by Plato, 
ii. 240. 
Proxenus, native of Thebes; studies at 
Athens under Gorgias ; friendship for 
Xenophon ; enters service of Cyrus 
the younger, ii. 95. 
Prytaneum, Lycurgus and his son pub- 
licly entertained in, ii. 150. 
Pythagoras said to have derived his 
philosophy from Pherecydes, i. 215 ; 
uncertainty respecting him ; first as- 
sumed title of philosopher ; his poli- 
tics ; his works ; his philosophy Do- 
rian, i. 238 ; relation of number to 
his philosophy, i. 251 ; harmony the 
foundation of his system, i. 252 ; stu- 



dies mathematical, i. 253 ; his philo- 
sophy illustrated by modern theory 
of chemical equivalents, i. 254 ; his 
views respecting nature of man ; ex- 
altation of intellect, i. 255. 
Pythian games, Echembrotus gains 
prize at ; singiDg to instrumental ac- 
companiment forbidden at, i. 143. 

Quinctilian, eulogizes Archilochus, i. 
147 ; his condemnation of the style of 
iEschylus, i. 290 ; his praise of Ly- 
sias, ii. 130; apophthegm on art, ii. 
322 ; laws of, for cadence, recognized 
with pleasure, ii. 322. 

Races of men, the, Aramaic or Semi- 
tic, Iranian or Indo-European, i. 3 ; 
equally gifted, literature and civi- 
lization owing to them, i. 4: of 
Greece, i. 10. 

Racine, takes Wasps of Aristophanes 
as model for his comedy Les Plai- 
deurs, ii. 41. 

Records, historical, did not exist in early 
Greece, ii. 50 ; form diary of mon- 
archs, ii. 51. 

Religion, the early Greek, i. 21 ; how 
affected by physical character of the 
country, i„ 21 ; monotheism ; hero- 
worship ; influence of poets upon, 
i. 97 ; substance of, i. 101 ; of Ho- 
meric age free from idolatry, ib. ; in- 
fluence of, on philosophy, i. 226. 

Rennel, his geography of Herodotus, 
ii . 70. 

Revolutions, political, literature how 
affected by, i. 206 ; in Magna Grscia, 
i. 250. 

Rhapsodi, the, i. 84; origin of name, 
i. 86; their poems received as Homer's, 
i. 88. 

Rhetoric, first taught in schools of 
Sicily ; school of, at Athens, founded 
by Gorgias, ii. 100; Empedocles, in- 
ventor of, ii. 165. 

Rhetorical rhythm, principles of, ana- 
lysed by Gorgias ; first employed by 
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, ii. 110. 

Rhodes, iEschines establishes school of 
rhetoric at, ii. 145. 

Rhodians, iEschines reads orations of 
Demosthenes to, ii. 143. 

Riddle, proposed to Homer, i. 36. 

Ritschl, supports opinion of Altzsch, 
i.45. 

Ritter, his error respecting co-ordinate 
series of Aristotle, i. 254 : date for 



368 



INDEX. 



introduction of Oriental philosophy 
into Greece, i. 236 ; date for birth of 
Parmenides, ii. 159 ; fallacies of 
Zeno explained by ; opinions of tra- 
dition respecting Empedocles, ii. 165; 
doubts genuineness of works attributed 
to Aristippus, ii. 209 ; opinion on 
scholastic terms used by Aristotle, 
ii. 297. 
Rome, college of priests and augurs, 
depositaries of historical records, ii. 
51 ; Herodotus ignorant of, ii. 64. 

Sage, title of, how obtained, i. 206. 

Sages, the Seven, i. 205 ; their practical 
wisdom ; prepare way for gnomic 
poets, i. 207 ; number arbitrary ; list 
usually given ; epoch of, i. 208 ; mo- 
ral philosophy first traceable in apoph- 
thegms of, these the result of obser- 
vation, i. 230. 

Salamis, how recovered from Megara 
by Solon, i. 143 ; Sophocles leader of 
chorus after victory of, i. 307 ; battle 
of, how connected with lives of three 
great tragic poets of Greece, i. 324. 

San, the letter, i. 18. 

Sanpi, the letter, how formed, i. 18. 

Sappho, her poetry, i. 161 ; contempo- 
rary with Alcaeus ; her character ; 
Muller's remarks on, i. 175; an 
iEolian ; why attacked by Athenian 
poets, i. 176 ; character of her poems ; 
metre copied by Horace, ideas by Ca- 
tullus ; opinion of Solon respecting 
one of her poems ; examples of poetry 
of, i. 177 ; biography of; authorities 
for ; her works ; her love for Phaon ; 
legend of, i. 180 ; how it originated ; 
rhythm of poems same as Alcasus ; 
epigram in honour of, i. 181. 

Satiric drama, the, when separated from 
the tragic, i. 282 ; only extant exam- 
ple of, i. 337. ' 

Satirical poetry, iambic metre used for, 
by Archilochus, i. 147. 

Satyrs, recite narrative in dramatic cho- 
rus, i. 274 ; when banished from tra- 
gedy ; first introduced by Arion, i. 
280. 

Scale in music, i. 154 ; see Genera. 

Scenery of Greece peopled mythologi- 
cally, i. 22 ; in Greek theatre, i. 346. 

Schlegel, his characteristic of the drama, 
i. 262 ; his estimation of dramatic 
character of Plato's dialogues, ii. 227. 

Schleiermacher, fragments of Heracli- 
tus preserved by, i. 246 ; on prevalent 



errors respecting dialogues of Plato, 
ii. 223 ; excludes Hippias Minor from 
works of Plato, his arrangement of, 
the best, ii. 230. 

Science, infancy of, in Homeric age ; 
astronomical, i. 113. 

grammatical, did not exist in 

time of iEschylus, i. 292. 

• musical, among the Greeks ; 



invented by Terpander ; harmony un- 
known ; Euclid's etymology of word, 
i. 153 ; original state of ; Terpander *s 
improvement in, i. 145 ; genera ; co- 
lours ; modes ; subject obscure ; dif- 
fers from modern ; no major third ; 
tetrachord, fundamental principle of, 
until time of Gregory, i. 155; Dorian 
mode in, i. 156 ; physical, progress in, 
necessary, ii. 170 ; transferred from 
provinces to Athens, ii. 171. 

Scopas, patron of Simonides, legend of, 
i. 190. 

Sculpture, its material and beauty ; il- 
lustrates nature of language, i. 3 ; the 
Lycian at Mycenas, i. 30 ; how prac- 
tised in Homeric age, i. 118. 

Sea, surrounding Greece ; its beauty ; 
Ionian associations connected with, 
ii. 5 ; love of Athenians for ; nume- 
rous descriptions of, in Greek poetry, 
ii. 6. 

Seats, how arranged and appropriated 
in Greek theatre, i. 344. 

Semitic race, Aramean ; migrations of ; 
influence of, on language and litera- 
ture; alphabet of, phonetic; its power; 
antiquity of literature, i. 4 ; poetry 
of, i. 5 ; called by Greeks, Phoenician, 
i. 13 ; alphabet at first pictorial, i. 14; 
writing of, i. 16; had no drama, 
i. 268. 

Separators, their theory, i. 39 ; revived 
by Payne Knight, i. 40 ; its difficulty, 
i. 83. 

Seven Wise Men of Greece, i. 205 : see 



Shield of Achilles, i. 66, 119; of Hera- 
cles, i. 132 ; poem of Hesiod, i. 135. 

Sibilant letter, an aspirate, i. 18; ex- 
amples of, in Latin, i. 19. 

Sicily, Dorian colonies in ; Theognis, 
poet of, i. 143 ; pastoral poetry of; 
Epicharmus, poet of, i. 185 ; the Ne- 
phelococcygia of Aristotle, ii. 45 ; 
oratory cultivated as an art in demo- 
cratic cities of, ii. 165. 

Siculi, their pastorals ; connexion with 
Dorians ; its consequence, i. 186. 



INDEX, 



369 



Simile, the Homeric, i. 53. 

Simmias, Theban poet, epigram by, 

i.311. 
Simonides of Amorgos, elegiac poet ; 
subjects of poems not known, i. 14k ; 
specimens of his iambic verse pre- 
served by Stobaeus ; not the lyric poet 
of same name ; his poems of two 
kinds ; satire on women ; native of 
Saraos ; leader of colony to Amorgos ; 
date of; philological value of ; his 
poetry, i. 148. 

of Ceos, second period of 

Greek classical literature commences 
with, i. 2 ; example of scolia by ; his 
epitaph to Anacreon, i. 189 ; lyric 
poet ; connected with Dionysiac wor- 
ship ; his history ; legend related of, 
by Cicero, i. 190 ; compared with Pin- 
dar ; his epitaph on Archedice ; on 
those who fell in Perian war, i. 191 ; 
vanquishes iEschylus, i. 192; epigram 
by, i. 311. 
Socher, works of Plato, not considered 

genuine by, ii. 229. 
Socrates instructs Euripides in morals, 
i. 324 ; why selected as representa- 
tive of sophists by Aristophanes in 
the Clouds, ii. 38 ; his connexion 
with Xenophon,ii. 94 ; value attribu- 
ted by, to consciousness of identity, 
ii. 175 ; a teacher of righteousness, 
ii. 184 ; his mission moral rather 
than philosophical ; illustrated his 
doctrine in his life ; not founder of 
any school ; had no system ; his con- 
sciousness of ignorance ; admonition 
to, from Delphian deity, ii. 185 ; 
teaches those assembled in Athens by 
policy of Pericles : father a sculptor ; 
originally of same profession ; his 
self-government ; commencement of 
philosophical career, how related by 
Diogenes ; attends lectures of Anaxa- 
goras and Archelaus, how enabled to 
do so ; his attention to his duties as a 
citizen and soldier ; saves life of Xeno- 
phon, belief in his own vocation and 
divine commission ; his dsemon ; his 
attempt to regenerate society ; how 
begun, ii. 187 ; Alcibiades his pupil, 
unsuccessful with, more with Xeno- 
phon, in the latter the reflection of 
practical side of character, as in Plato 
the imaginative ; his hopes of son of 
Pericles, how frustrated; abstains from 
politics, odium consequent upon, and 
on his character of a social reformer ; 



attacks on, in Clouds ; persecution of 
political, ii. 190; reasons for a victim 
to spirit of party ; three occasions on 
which he interfered in politics, con- 
tributed to his condemnation, ii. 190 ; 
motives for refusing to enrol decrees 
for death of victors at Arginusae ; in- 
terferes to save Theramenes ; refuses 
to obey command of Thirty Tyrants ; 
unmolested for twenty-five years ; ac- 
cusations against ; private animosity 
accessory to, ii. 191 ; ridicule of na- 
tional institutions ; condemned by 
small majority ; his defence ; its cha- 
racter, ii. 192 ; correct estimate of 
himself ; effect of his high-mindedness 
on his condemnation, ii. 198 ; his 
apology ; its peroration translated by 
Cicero, by Steel, its sublime conclu- 
sion ; conduct after condemnation, ii. 
193 ; we are indebted to the interval 
for treatise on immortality of soul, 
embodied in Phaedo of Plato ; his 
last words, ii. 194 ; extolled by 
Christians as well as heathens ; his 
death, signal for dispersion of his 
friends ; his character as a philoso- 
pher, ii. 195 ; his instructions ; how 
delivered ; comparison of his teaching 
with that of sophists, ii. 196 ; cause 
of political colouring of his teaching, 
ii. 197 ; his character as contemplated 
by Plato and Xenophon, ii. 198 ; true 
conception of, from combination of 
two views ; why he appears to under- 
value physical science, ii. 200 ; diffi- 
culties in the way of eliciting Socratic 
system, use to be made of writings of 
Aristotle, ii. 201 ; exposes immoral 
tendency of teaching of sophists ; re- 
ligious character of his philosophy, ii. 
202 ; his doctrines arranged under 
three heads ; his contemplation of God 
directed to his relation to man ; doc- 
trine of immortality of soul, ii. 204 ; 
shown in narrative of Plato ; his 
moral theory correspondent to, ii. 205 ; 
idea of object of life, paradox conse- 
quent on, refuted by Aristotle, danger 
of ; great schools of Greece, spring 
from his reformation of philosophy, 
whom founded by, ii. 206 ; his occa- 
sional coarseness, ii. 226 ; followed 
by Plato ; no importance assigned to 
ethics and politics, ii. 257. 
Solon, laws of, how written, i. 19 ; col- 
lects poems of Homer, i. 87 ; his ar- 
chonship ; his poetry ; one of the 



370 



INDEX. 



gnomic poets, i. 142 ; poem on Sala- 
mis, i. 143 ; specimens preserved by 
Stobaeus, i. 148 ; one of Seven Sages, 
i. 208 ; an Athenian ; related to Pisi- 
stratus ; his wisdom, how obtained ; 
institutions ; poems ; philosophical 
acquirements, i. 211 ; celebrated by 
Cicero for his oratory, ii. Ill ; Plato 
descended from, ii. 220 ; basis of his 
constitutional timocracy, ii. 316. 

Sophists, their professions ; contrasted 
with Socrates, ii. 38 ; improved prose 
composition, ii. 1 10 ; most celebrated 
as rhetorical teachers ; have left no 
fragments ; obligation of Greek liter- 
ature to ; first directed man to the 
study of himself; consciousness of 
identity first taught by, ii. 175 ; re- 
view of circumstances of their times, 
ii. 176 ; adopt the false ideas of edu- 
cation prevalent in Athens after Pelo- 
ponnesian war ; education given by 
them superficial ; many of them 
acquainted with philosophy ; exam- 
ples ; generally men of ability ; 
influence of, on society, ii. 178 ; 
profit, avowed motive for teaching ; 
taught only the wealthier classes ; 
went with tide of popular error, ii. 
179 ; their dialectics, ii. 180 ; origin 
of their system ; their selfishness, ii. 
181 ; in many respects incompetent ; 
nature of their acquirements ; why 
their works have not been transmitted 
to posterity, ii. 182,; exception ; 
specimen of sophistry of Gorgias ; 
Plato's view of, ii. 183 ; Socrates, 
why classed with, ii. 197. 

Sophocles, time of his death, i. 283 ; 
belief in necessity for purification, i. 
287 ; vanquishes JEschylus, i. 288 ; 
attached to cause of freedom, i. 300 ; 
compared with iEschylus ; dramatic 
skill of, i. 305 ; his life ; son of So- 
philus ; father's trade ; his education ; 
his beauty, i. 306 ; contests prize 
with iEschylus ; the Triptolemus ; 
the Antigone, when first exhibited; 
elected one of ten generals, i. 307 ; 
unfitness for office ; forms intimacy 
with Herodotus ; political inconsis- 
tency, i- 308 ; love of his country ; 
accusation of son, how set aside, 
i. 309 ; chorus of (Edipus Coloneus ; 
quotation from Horace, illustrative 
of, i. 310 ; uncertainty respecting his 
death ; epigram of Simonides ; ditto 
by Simmias ; translation of ; his 



plays ; perfection of Greek tragic 
drama; his appellation, the Bee; 
compared with iEschylus, i. 311 ; 
observation of Aristotle on realization 
of character in poetry ; examples from 
plays of Sophocles, i. 313 ; his morals 
essentially ethical ; a dramatic re- 
former; essay on the chorus, i. 314 ; 
number of dramas; dates uncertain ; 
order of, by Mttller, i. 315; his 
descriptive accuracy, ii. 10 ; friendship 
of Herodotus for ; commands expedi- 
tion to Samos, ii. 63 ; Herodotus 
borrows from,ii. 65. 

Sparta did not produce one orator, ii. 
124 ; why unable to maintain her 
ascendancy in Greece, ii. 171. 

Speusippus, his epigram on Plato; ii. 
223 ; nephew and successor of Plato ; 
his works purchased by Aristotle ; 
succeeded by Xenocrates, i. 271. 

Stage in Greek theatre, i. 345. 

Stars, the, not distinguished from 
planets in Homeric age ; Venus ; 
the constellations ; the Milky Way, i. 
114 ; Sirius ; seasons of year marked 
by ; use of, to agriculturist and 
mariner, i. 115. 

Stasima, all odes, except parode, so 
called, i. 361. 

Stasinus of Cyprus, cyclic poet, i. 1 36. 

Stesichorus, contemporary with Sappho ; 
native of Himera ; son of Hesiod ; 
legend, how accounted for, i. 183 ; 
originally called Tisias; name, why 
changed ; his use of epode ; adapts 
epic subjects to lyric verse ; Quinc- 
tilian's opinion of; Muller's, i. 184 ; 
how far correct ; bucolic or pastoral 
poet, i. 185. 

Stobaeus, preserves specimens of poetry 
of Callinus, i. 140. 

Strabo, speaks of grapes of Palestine, 
i. 276 ; his estimation of logographi, 
i. 218; appeals to topographical au- 
thority of Homer, ii. 7 ; witnesses 
truthfulness of; descriptions oLEschy- 
lus and Sophocles, ii. 10 ; esteems 
chronology and geography necessary 
aids to history, ii. 55 ; his account of 
Zeno assisting Parmenides in legisla- 
tion, ii. 161. 

Style, unity of, in poems of Homer, i. 
53. 

Suidas, his testimony to Homer's pu- 
rity, i. 37 ; his date of Simonides in- 
correct, i. 141 ; account of Simonides, 
i. 148 ; not acquainted with works of 



INDEX. 



371 



Acusilaus ; enumeration of works of 
Phrynicus, i. 281 ; cause assigned by, 
for defeat of ^Eschylus, i. 288 ; enu- 
meration of tragedies of ./Eschylus by, 
i. 293; acconnt of Phormis, ii. 17; 
of Chionides ; date of his comedies, ii. 
25; information respecting Eupolis, 
ii. 29 ; almost sole authority for life of 
Herodotus, ii. 56 ; says Herodotus 
wrote his history at Samos, ii. 58 ; 
account of orations of Lycurgus, ii. 
150. 

Sun-god, hymns to; when sung, oxen 
of; slain by companions of Odysseus, 
i. 70. 

Suppliants, the tragedy of JEschylus ; 
legend of Danaus ; beauty of odes 
in, i. 294 ; political instruction how 
conveyed in, i. 373. 

Surgery, knowledge of, in Homeric age, 
i. 117. 

Susarion, lived in time of Solon ; 
amused Icarians with buffoonery ; 
his lee-singers ; origin of comedy, 
i. 15. 

Siivern, his interpretation of plot of 
Frogs of Aristophanes, ii. 44. 

Symposium of Xenophon, exhibits 
striking features of Socrates' charac- 
ter, ii. 104. 

System, necessary to philosophy ; not 
traceable in Hesiodic, Orphic, or 
gnomic poets, i. 231. 

Tasso, an epic poet, i. 32. 

Telemachus, directed by Athene ; ac- 
tions of, in Odyssey, i. 68. 

Tenneman, his life of Plato, compre- 
hends results of modern investigations, 
ii. 219. 

Terpander, inventor of musical science ; 
native of Lesbos ; adapted melodies 
to Doric lays, i. 153 ; invented system 
of musical notation, i. 157. 

Tetrachord, fundamental principle of 
Greek music, i. 155. 

Tetralogy, satiric drama, fourth in, i. 
280. 

Thales, one of Seven Sages ; sends 
golden tripod to Bias, i. 208 ; most 
distinguished of the Seven ; a Mi- 
lesian ; founder of Ionian philoso- 
phy, i. 210 ; calculated solar eclipse ; 
turned the course of Halys, i. 211; 
first systematic philosopher, i. 232 ; 
his philosophy ; Cicero's account of; 
astronomy ; geography, i. 242. 

Thaletas, native of Crete, attached to 



worship of Zeus ; improved religious 
music, i. 158 ; authority of, i. 168. 
Thamyris, a bard, i. 27 ; son of Phi- 

lammon, i. 29. 
Theatre, the Greek, a temple to Diony- 
sus, i.343 ; of Dionysus ; its situation ; 
construction, i. 334 ; the seats, how 
appropriated ; the thymele, stage, 
orchestra, scenery, i. 345 ; entrances, 
trap-doors, scene rarely changed, 
i. 346; landscape, how represented; 
want of perspective in, i. 347 ; di- 
mensions of, i. 348 ; acoustic pro- 
perties; stairs of Charon, where situ- 
ated, i. 346; addresses to spectators, 
i. 349 ; combination of nature and art 
in scenic effect, i. 350 ; scene laid in 
open air ; the awning introduced by 
Romans, i. 351 ; mechanical contriv- 
ances ; the eccyclema, instances of 
its use from three great tragedians, 
i. 352 ; music becomes more important 
in, i. 354 ; used for conferring public 
honours, and for public meetings, 
i. 355 ; when used for dramatic repre- 
sentations, i. 356. 
Thebes, Pindar, poet of ; Athenian resi- 
dent at, i. 197; Seven against, tragedy 
of, by iEschylus; second of trilogy, 
i. 293. 
Themistocles, his exploits extolled by 

Herodotus, i. 301. 
Theocritus, his pastorals, i. 185 ; his 

bucolic poetry, ii. 330. 
Theodectes, rather a rhetorician than a 

tragic poet, i. 342. 
Theodoras, sophist, character of his 

writings, ii. 182. 
Theognis, poet of Megara, resided in 
Attica , i. 143 ; aristocratic; poetry sung 
at public dinners of Dorians, i. 144. 
Theogony of Hesiod ; its character not 
considered genuine by Boeotians, i. 
134 ; basis of Greek physical philoso- 
phy, i. 134 ; concludes with catalogue 
of heroes, i. 135. 
Theophrastus, a Lesbian ; how selected 
by Aristotle to succeed him, ii. 280 ; 
first book of (Economics ascribed to 
him, ii. 313 ; his style ; value of his 
works ; Menander, pupil of, ii. 330. 
Theoric fund, law of Eubulus respect- 
ing ; how evaded by Demosthenes, 
i. 358. 
Theramenes, celebrated by Cicero for 

eloquence, ii. 111. 
Thesmophoriazusae, comedy of Aristo- 
phanes ; attack on vices of women ; 



372 



INDEX. 



on Euripides, ii. 42 ; parodies, scene 
from tragedies of, ii. 43. 
Thespis, first introduces subjects not 
Dionysiac into tragedy, i. 274; how far 
inventor of tragic drama ; native of 
Icaria, i. 280 ; copied Susarion, ii. 
15. 
Thrace, the bardic Pieria, i. 28; Diony- 
siac worship in, i. 277. 
Thrasyllus rearranges dialogues of Plato 

in tetralogies, i. 228. 
Thrasymachus first employs rhythm in 
rhetoric, ii. 110; teacher of rhetoric ; 
character of his writings, ii. 182. 
Thucydides, his style periodic, i. 138 ; 
his era of Homer, i. 45 ; opinion of 
historical authority of Homer, i. 96 ; 
description of governments in Ho- 
meric ages, i. 105 ; quotes hymns to 
Apollo, i. 124 ; his truthfulness, ii. 
11 ; opinion of chronology of Hella- 
nicus, ii. 54 ; age of, at commence- 
ment of Peloponnesian war, ii. 57 ; 
inventor of philosophical history ; 
Athenian citizen ; pupil of Antiphon; 
birth, time of, uncertain ; commands 
Athenian fleet at Theros ; sent to re- 
lieve Amphipolis, ii. 77 ; populace 
excited against, by Cleon ; voluntary 
exile, how employed ; Pausanias' ac- 
count of his death, ii. 78; the history 
of, its abrupt termination ; genuine- 
ness of eighth book, ii. 79 ; import- 
ance of first book, ii. 80; history- 
en tire ; subject of; episodes in ; chro- 
nological arrangement of, ii. 81 ; 
lived during period of his history, 
ii. 82 ; his impartiality, ii. 83 ; ac- 
count of composition of speeches in 
his history, ii. 83; his own opinions 
reflected in ; Cicero's opinions of, ii. 
84 ; antithesis, his love for, ii. 85 ; 
composition of speeches, style of ; his 
love of truth ; own account of, ii. 86 ; 
brevity and conciseness ; talents for 
description, examples of, ii. 87 ; know- 
ledge of human nature ; political wis- 
dom, ii. 88 ; confines himself strictly 
to his subject, ii. 89 ; gives no account 
of philosophy or literature at Athens, 
ii. 90; compared with Herodotus ; his 
field narrower, not similar interest, ii. 
91; his work shows advance in his- 
torical science ; mind more thoughtful 
than Thucydides'; subjective, ii. 93 ; 
Greek eloquence indebted to Thucy- 
dides for perfection, ii. 109 ; history 
transcribed eight times by Demo- 



sthenes ; Cicero's assertion against ; 
answered by comparison of his speeches 
with Rhetoric of Aristotle, ii. 109 ; 
character of demagogues, ii. 115 ; 
causes which led to his writing his- 
tory, ii. 173 ; ideas of personal inde- 
pendence more healthy than those of 
Plato, ii. 265. 
Thymele, in theatre, altar to Dionysus, 
how ornamented, i. 354 ; use made 
of in the Choephori ; Persae, i. 354 ; 
and Agamemnon, i. 355. 
Timaeus of Sicily introduces calculation 

by Olympiads, ii. 82. 
Tiraotheus, his lyre, i. 157. 
Tisias, teacher of rhetoric to Lysias, ii. 

128. 
Tityrus, origin of name, i. 186. 
Tlepolemus, only Heracleid chief in 

Iliad, i. 34. 
Toth, the Egyptian Sirius, i. 24. 
Tragedy, the Greek, later than comedy, 
i. 267 ; etymology of word ; subjects 
not Dionysiac introduced into, by 
Thespis, i. 274 ; progress of, i. 279; 
separation of, from comedy, i. 280 ; 
from satiric drama, i. 282 ; exclu- 
sively Athenian, after time of Pratinas, 
i. 283 ; three eras of ; degenerates 
after Sophocles ; technical divisions 
of, i. 361 ; compared with modern 
opera, i. 364 ; subjects of, why my- 
thological, i. 368. 
Tragic writers, list of, i. 283. 
Transmigration of souls taught by Py- 
thagoras, ii. 259 ; and Plato ; what 
natives believed by, ii. 256. 
Triad, the, of Pherecydes, i. 229. 
Trilogy, the Oresteian, M'dller's arrange- 
ment of choruses in, i. 361 ; of cha- 
racters in, i. 363. 
Troad, iEolian settlements in, how 
effected, i. 93 ; claim of Athens to, 
supported by iEschylus, i. 301. 
Trojan war, an iEolian tradition, i. 34. 
Tyranny, what meant by; Sparta and 
Argos opposed to; flourished in Ionian 
states, i. 260. 
Tyrants, period of, in history ; the re- 
generators of Greece, i. 259. 
Tyre, connexion of, with Greece, i. 

13. 
Tyrtaeus, elegiac poet, lived in time of 
second Messenian war ; sent from 
Athens to Sparta; opinion of Matthiae 
concerning; a rhapsodist, i. 140; 
effect of his poetry; anapaests; Eu- 
nomia, i. 141 ; his authority, i. 168. 



INDEX. 



373 



Unity, how shown in poems of Homer, 
i. 49 ; of plan, a proof of unity of 
authorship, i. 51; three points of, i. 
52. 

Virgil, an epic poet, i. 32; his eclogues, 

L185. 
Vitruvius, his description of a Greek 

theatre, whence derived, i. 343. 

Wasps, comedy of Aristophanes, ana- 
lysis of, ii. 40 ; furnished Racine model 
for Les Plaideurs, ii. 41. 

Water, the original element in philoso- 
phy of Thales, i. 244. 

Whately, Archbishop, exposes fallacy of 
Zeno, ii. 162 ; his illustration of ex- 
cess of ornament in rhetoric, ii. 322. 

Wit, ancient and modern, theories of 
Cicero and Aristotle respecting, ii. 
146 ; difference in appreciation of, 
ii. 324. 

Wolf, his opinion respecting Homer's 
poems, i. 42 ; opposed by Nitzsch, i. 
44 ; inconsistencies in his theory ; 
himself scarcely a convert to it, i. 91. 

Wood, his essay on genius of Homer, 
ii. 7. 

Works and Days, poem of Hesiod, on 
the occupations and duties of life j a 
calendar added to, i. 134. 

Writing, Semitic, from right to left; 
Greek originally the same ; fiourrgoqiyi- 
dov, i. 16; when practised by loni- 
ans ; when introduced by Phoenicians 
into Greece, i. 44 ; on parchment, 
ascribed to Ionians, i. 229. 

Xenocles, tragic writer, conquers Euri- 
pides, i. 284. 

Xenocrates of Chalcedon succeeds Speu- 
sippus at the Academy, ii. 271 ; fills 
chair of Plato for twenty-five years ; 
his character and works, ii. 272 ; 
teaching at Athens when Aristotle 
established school at Lyceum, iL277. 

Xenophanes of Colophon ; name of Ho- 
mer first used by, i. 36 ; founder of 
Lleatic school of philosophy ; contem- 
porary with Phocylides, i. 144 ; cha- 
racter of his philosophy, i. 256 ; 
opposed old theology, i. 257. 

Xenophon, eighth book of Thucydides 
imputed to, ii. 79 ; son of Gryllus, an 
Athenian ; birth estimated by Matthias 
and Clinton; life saved by Socrates, at 
Delium, ii. 94 ; consequent friendship; 
joins expedition of Cyrus as volunteer ; 
VOL. II. 



his account of motives which led 
to friendship with Proxenus ; consults 
Socrates and oracle at Delphi, ii. 95 ; 
his conduct after battle of Cunaxa ; 
his dream, philosophy, ii. 96 ; talents, 
as a commander, as an historian, 
descriptive power, ii. 97 ; his account 
of Retreat of Ten Thousand, ii. 98 ; 
chosen sole general ; declines the ho- 
nour; his raid in Lydia ; banished from 
Athens, ii.99 ; causes of, ii. 100 ; poli- 
tical principles same as Socrates' ; 
attachment to Sparta ; fought against 
Athens at Coroneia ; estate at Scillus 
given by Spartans ; employments in 
that interval ; love of field-sports ; 
life saved by Socrates, ii. 187 ; pupil 
of Socrates reflects practical side of his 
philosophy, ii. 188 ; his story of Any- 
tus' private animosity against Socrates, 
ii. 191 ; his view of the philosophy of 
Socrates, ii. 198 ; wrote dialogues ; 
simplicity and perspicuity of his style, 
ii. 226. 
Xenophon, the works of, the Hellenica, 
ii. 100 ; Memorabilia; view of practical 
side of Socratic philosophy, ii. 102 ; 
more faithful than Plato ; the Apo- 
logy, the Symposium, ii. 103; his 
(Economics ; Socrates introduced in ; 
treatise on domestic economy ; his 
treatise on Spartan and Athenian 
constitution ; on ways and means ; 
panegyric on Agesilaus ; books on 
horses and huntiug, character of, ii. 
104. 

Zaleucus, laws of, the earliest docu- 
ments committed to writing, i. 43. 

Zeno, a disciple of Parmenides, with 
Empedocles ; writes treatise in defence 
of doctrine of great First Cause, ii. 
160, its high reputation ; a politician 
as w^ell as philosopher ; assisted Par- 
menides in legislation ; story of his 
fortitude ; first who arranged argu- 
ments in form of dialogue ; inventor 
of dialectic science; science an amuse- 
ment ; his paradoxes ; how explained 
by Ritter, ii. 161 ; fallacy of Achilles 
and the tortoise, exposed by Whately; 
his philosophy, ii. 162. 

Zeus, account of his actions in Iliad and 
Odyssey, i. 62 ; established and con- 
trols law of nature, i. 93 ; attributes 
of power, i 99 ; other gods inferior 
to, i. 100. 

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